LIBRARY 
UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 

RIVERSIDE 


Boston  Monday  Lectures. 


LABOR, 


WITH   PRELUDES  ON  CURRENT  EVENTS. 


By  JOSEPH   COOK. 


I  am  perfectly  convinced  that  the  real  way  to  elevate  the  character 
of  the  working  classes  is  to  give  them  a  command  over  the  necessaries  of 
life.  —  Sir  Robert  Peel. 


BOSTON: 

HOUGHTON,  OSGOOD   AND   COMPANY. 

^^z  Et^erfitiUe  Press,  CamirtH^e. 


//p  •/ 

C6^ 


Copyright,  1880, 
By   JOSEPH    COOK. 


All  rights  reserved. 


Withdrawn 

Garrett  BillLai  Institute 


Stereotyped  by  C.  J.  Peters  4*  Son, 
7J  Federal  Street,  Boston. 


INTRODUCTION. 


The  object  of  the  Boston  Monday  Lectures  is  to  present  the 
results  of  the  freshest  German,  English,  and  American  scholar- 
sliip,  on  the  more  important  and  difficult  topics  concerning  the 
relations  of  Religion  and  Science. 

They  were  begun  in  the  Meionaon  in  1875;  and  the  audiences, 
gathered  at  noon  on  Mondays,  were  of  such  size  as  to  need  to 
be  transferred  to  Park-street  Church  in  October,  1876,  and 
thence  to  Tremont  Temple,  which  was  often  more  than  full 
during  the  winter  of  1876-77,  and  in  that  of  1877-78.  The  very 
capacious  auditorium  of  Tremont  Temple  was  destroyed  by 
fire  in  August,  1879  ;  and  in  November,  1879,  the  lectures  were 
transferred  to  the  Old  South  Meeting  House,  the  most  interest- 
ing of  the  historic  edifices  of  New  England. 

The  audiences  have  always  contained  large  numbers  of  min- 
isters, teachers,  and  other  educated  men. 

The  thirty-five  lectures  given  in  1876-77  were  reported  in  the 
Boston  Daily  Advertiser,  by  Mr.  J.  E.  Bacon,  stenographer; 
and  most  of  them  were  republished  in  full  in  New  York  and 
London.  They  are  contained  in  the  first,  second,  and  third 
volumes  of  "  Boston  Monday  Lectures,"  entitled  "  Biology," 
"  Transcendentalism,"  and  "  Orthodoxy." 

The  thirty  lectures  given  in  1877-78  were  reported  by  Mr. 
Bacon  for  the  Advertiser,  and  I'epubli^hed  in  full  in  New  York 
and  London.     They  are  contained  in  the  fourth,  fifth,  and  sixth 


iv  INTRODUCTION. 

volumes  of  "  Boston  Monday  Lectures,"  entitled  "  Conscience," 
"  Heredity,"  and  "  Marriage." 

The  twenty  lectures  given  in  1878-79  were  reported  by  Mr. 
Bacon,  for  the  Advertiser,  and  republished  in  full  in  New  York 
and  London.  They  are  contained  in  the  seventh  and  eighth 
volumes  of  "  Boston  Monday  Lectures,"  entitled  "  Labor  "  and 
"  Socialism." 

In  the  present  volume  some  of  the  salient  points  are :  — 

1.  A  definition  of  Socialism  by  ite  theories,  as  the  legal  and 
compensated  or  compulsory  and  uncompensated  transmutation 
of  private,  competing,  family,  or  corjM^ration  capital,  into  pub- 
lic, collective,  and  uncompeting  capital. 

2.  A  definition  of  both  Conlmunism  and  Socialism,  by  their 
tendencies  in  practice,  as  involving  the  abolition  of  inheritance 
and  private  property,  and  the  expropriation  of  its  present  own- 
ers (Lecture  I.). 

3.  A  definition  of  natural  wages  as  consisting  of  at  least 
twice  the  cost  of  the  unprepared  food  of  the  laborer  and  his 
family  (Lecture  VI XL). 

4.  A  definition  of  natural  profits  (Lectures  VIIT.  and  IX.). 

•  5.  A  defence  of  the  theory  that  natural  wages  and  natural 
profits  are  not  antagonistic  to  each  other,  or  that  profits  do  not 
necessarily  lessen  as  wages  increase  (Lecture  IX.). 

6.  A  free  use  of  the  facts  collected  by  the  original  investiga- 
tions of  the  Massachusetts  Labor  Bureau,  as  to  the  condition  of 
working-people,  male  and  female,  in  factory-towns  (Lectures 
V.-VII). 

7.  A  consideration  of  the  moral  perils  of  congregated  labor 
in  manufacturing  centres  (Lectures  III.  and  V.). 

8.  A  discussion  of  woman's  wages,  and  of  the  relations  of 
sex  to  industry  (Lectures  V.  and  VI.). 

9.  A  consideration  of  the  susceptibility  of  the  United  States 
to  communistic  an<l  socialistic  disease,  under  universal  suf- 
frage, and  of  theocratic  equality  as  a  remedy  for  democratic 
f(mality  (Lectures  I.  and  X.). 

10.  A  defence  of  the  rights  of  children  in  factories  to  the 
protection  of  health  and  to  education  (Lecture  IV.). 


INTRODUCTION".  V 

The  names  of  the  gentlemen  constituting  the  Committee 
now  in  charge  of  the  Boston  Monday  Lectureship  are  as  fol- 
lows :  — 

Hon.  A.  H.  Rice, Ex-Go vemor  of  Mas-  Prof.  Edwards  A.  Park,  LL.D.,  An- 

sachusetts.  dover  Theological  Seminary. 

Hon.  William  Claflin,  Ex-Governor  Rev.  J.  L.  Withrow,  D.D. 

of  Massachusetts.  A.  Bronson  Alcott. 

Rev.  George  Z.Grat, D.D. .Episcopal  Russell  Sturgis,  Jr. 

Theological  School,  Cambridge.  Right  Rev.  Bishop  Foster. 

Right  Rev.  Bishop  Paddock.  Rev.  A.  J.  Gordon,  D.D. 

Prof.  E.  P.  Gould,  Newton  Theologi-  Samuel  Johnson. 

cal  Institution.  Prof.  B.  P.  Bownb. 

Rev.  William  M.  Baker,  D.D.  Rev.  M.  R.  Deming. 

Rev.  William  F.  Warren,  D.D. ,  Bos-  Prof.  J.  P.  Gulliver,  Andover  Theo- 

ton  University.  logical  Seminary. 

Prof.  L.  T.  TowNSKND,  Boston  Univer-  President  M.  B.  Anderson,  Rochester, 

Bity.  N.Y. 

Rev.  L.  B.  Bates,  D.D.  Rev.  Prof.  R.  D.  Hitchcock, D.D.,  New 

Robert  Gilchrist.  York. 

Prof.  E.  N.  HoRSFORD.  Rev.  Otis  Gibson,  San  Francisco. 

Rev.  R.  S.  Storrs,  D.D.,  Brooklyn.        Rev.  A.  L.  Stone,  D.D.,  San  Francisco. 
Rev.  T.  M.  Post,  D.D.,  St.  Louis.  Chancellor  L.  C.  Garland,  Vanderbilt 

President  G.  F.  Magoun,  Iowa  College.      University,  Tenn. 
Prof.  H.  Mead,  Oberlin,  Ohio.  Right  Rev.  Bishop  Huntington,  Syra- 

Rev.  R.  G.  Hutchins,  D.D.,  Colum-      cuse,  N.Y. 

bus,  Ohio.  President  James    McCosh,  Princeton, 

Prof.  S.  I.  CuRTiss,  Chicago  Theologi-      N.J. 

cal  Seminary.  B.  W.  Williams,  Secretary  and  Treaa- 


HENRY  F.  DURANT,  Chairman. 


PUBLISHERS'  NOTE. 


Ik  the  careful  reports  of  Mr.  Cook's  Lectures  printed 
in  the  Boston  Daily  Advertiser,  were  included  by  the 
stenographer  sundry  expressions  (applause,  «S:c.)  indicat- 
ing the  immediate  and  varjing  impressions  with  which  the 
Lectures  were  received.  Though  these  reports  have  been 
thoroughly  revised  by  the  author,  the  publishers  have 
thought  it  advisable  to  retain  these  expressions.  Mr. 
CJook's  audiences  included,  in  large  numbers,  representa- 
tives of  the  broadest  scholarship,  the  profoundest  philoso- 
ph}-,  the  acutcst  scientific  research,  and  generally  of  the 
finest  intellectual  culture,  of  Boston  and  New  P^ngland ; 
and  it  has  seemed  admissible  to  allow  the  larger  assembly 
to  which  these  Lectures  are  now  addressed  to  know  how 
they  were  received  b}-  such  audiences  as  tliose  to  which 
the}'  were  originally  delivered. 


CONTENTS. 


LECTUKES. 

PASS 

I.    Infidei,  Attack  ok  Propertt       ....  10 

II.    Secret  Socialistic  Societies 39 

III.  EiCH  AND  Poor  in  Factory  Towns       ...  69 

IV.  Mrs.  Browning's  Cry  of  the  Children     .        .  98 
Y.    Sex  in  Industry.  '1 132 

VI.    Sex  in  Industry.    II 157 

VII.    Wages  and  Children's  Rights      ....  198 

VIII.    Natural  and  Starvation  Wages        .        .        .  225 

IX.    Is  Justice  a  Peril  to  Capitalists  ?    .        .        .  253 

X.    Are  Trades-Unions  a  Nursery  of  Socialism  ? .  286 

PEELUDES. 

PAGK 

I.    Socialistic  Politics  in  Massachusetts      .       .  3 

11.    The  Regeneration  of  Asia 31 

m.    Infidelity  and  the  Mails 59 

IV.    Professorships  on  the  Relations  of  Reugion 

TO  Science 91 

V.    The  Future  of  Canada 123 

VI.    Fraud  in  National  Elections      ....  149 

VII.    Drunkenness  as  a  Vice  and  as  a  Disease       .  185 

VIII.    Polygamy  in  Utah 213 

IX.    National  Solvency  after  Civil  War       .        .  245 

X.    Roman  and  Modern  International  Unity       .  275 


I. 

INFIDEL  ATTACK  ON  PEOPERTY. 

THE    ONE    HUNDRED    AND    ELEVENTH    LECTURE    IN    THE 

BOSTON  MONDAY  LECTURESHIP,   DELIVERED   IN 

TBEMONT    TEMPLE,    NOV.    4. 


The  Alpha  and  Omega  of  socialism  is  the  transmutation  of  pri- 
vate competing  capital  into  united  collective  capital.  —  Sch^ffle: 
Quintessence  of  Socialism. 

Communism  is  the  exploitation  of  the  strong  by  the  weak.  In 
communism,  inequality  springs  from  placing  mediocrity  on  a  level 
with  excellence.  This  damaging  equation  is  repellent  to  the  con- 
science, and  causes  merit  to  complain. — Pboudhox:  First  Memoir  on 
Property. 


LABOR. 
I.. 

INFIDEL  ATTACK   ON  PROPERTY. 

PRELUDE  ON  CURRENT  EVENTS. 

Massachusetts  is  to  give  her  opinion,  before 
another  sun  goes  down,  concerning  the  hard-money 
political  party,  and  a  cheap-jack  and  burglar,  green- 
back and  greenhorn  gang.  [Applause.]  The  first 
skirmish  in  the  presidential  contest  of  1880  will  be 
fought  in  this  not  thoughtless  Commonwealth  to-mor- 
row. An  attempt  is  making  to  use  the  chair  of  Gov. 
Andrew  as  a  block  to  aid  a  political  adventurer  into 
the  saddle  of  the  wild  horse  of  inflation.  Sitting 
Bull,  travelling  in  Massachusetts  under  the  assumed 
name  of  Denis  Kearney,  appears  in  Faneuil  Hall  in 
his  shirt-sleeves,  and  preaches  a  crusade  of  the  poor 
against  the  rich.  Massachusetts  weighs  him,  and 
finds  him  first  indecent,  then  blasphemous,  then 
shallow  [applause],  and  last,  and  chief  of  all,  blood- 
thirsty. 

3 


4  LABOR. 

The  doctrines  of  the  sand-lots  of  San  Francisco 
are  heard  on  Boston  Common.  "Let  Fall  River 
remember  that  Moscow  was  burned  to  ashes." 
"Labor  must  be  crowned  king,  even  if  it  wades 
knee-deep  in  blood."  "  We  stand  ready  on  election 
day  to  take  the  life  of  any  man,  be  he  United  States 
supervisor  or  other  officer,  who  attempts  to  debar 
voters  from  exercising  the  right  of  suffrage."  "  We, 
the  working-men,  are  in  the  majority,  and  shall 
install  our  candidate  though  the  streets  run  with 
blood."  Language  worse  than  this,  I  myself  heard 
uttered  by  the  chief  of  the  California  working-men's 
party,  to  a  throng  of  puffing,  smoking  loafers  on  a 
hill  on  the  Common  yonder ;  and,  turning  to  watch 
the  throng,  I  found  in  their  faces  a  good  deal  of 
foreign  blood.  Undoubtedly  there  were  men  there 
who  thought  the  whole  affair  a  huge  joke ;  but  the 
question  is,  whetlier  we  can  allow,  in  view  of  what  is 
to  come  in  Massachusetts,  sentiments  of  this  kind  to 
be  scattered  broadcast  tlirough  the  operative  popula- 
tion. 

Eastern  Massachusetts  is  a  factory.  It  is  a  school 
also,  I  know ;  but  the  factory  is  not  conscious  tliat 
the  sunrise  side  of  this  Comntt)nwealth  is  a  school, 
nor  is  the  school  conscious  of  tlie  fact  that  the  same 
side  is  also  a  factory.  Draw  a  line  north  and  south, 
and  anotlier  east  and  west,  each  dividing  the  popula- 
tion of  Massaclmsetts  in  halves,  and  the  two  lines 
cross  each  otlier  not  far  from  Mount  Auburn.  Fall 
River,  Lowell,  Lawrence,  this  city,  as  manufacturing 
centres,  have  grown  so  fast  that  in  8i)ite  of  the  great 


INFIDEL  ATTACK   ON   PKOPEETY.  O 

increase  of  the  population  in  the  western  part  of  the 
State,  the  popuhition  of  Massachusetts  balances  about 
a  point  not  five  miles  west  of  the  State  House.  This 
growth  of  the  manufacturing  population  has  made 
New  England,  not  a  New  Ireland  indeed,  but  the 
commencement  of  one.  In  certain  portions  of  the 
operative  population,  a  hearing  can  be  had  for 
the  devouring  absurdities  of  sand-lot  oratory,  which 
would  have  no  importance  were  there  not  powder 
near  the  sparks.  The  powder  is  so  wet  now,  that 
there  will  be  no  explosion,  but  I  am  not  sure  it 
always  will  be.  Only  the  impotence  of  these  incen- 
diary harangues  prevents  their  author  from  being 
arrested.  While  we  notice  that  the  speeches  are 
brainless  and  blasphemous  and  bloodthirsty,  let  us 
remember  that  they  are  made  in  the  interest  and 
under  the  general  approval  of  an  aspirant,  not  only 
for  the  highest  political  position  in  this  State,  but 
also  for  the  highest  in  the  nation.  I  am  here  as 
the  representative  of  no  political  i)arty,  nor  of  any 
church ;  but  I  am  by  no  means  venturing  too  much 
in  saying  that  no  man  ought  to  vote  to  put  into 
public  office  a  candidate  who  indirectly  justifies  in- 
cendiary appeals  of  the  sort  I  have  described,  to  the 
prejudice  of  the  poor  against  the  rich.  [Applause.] 
What  if  these  appeals  are  but  the  tail  of  the  kite  ? 
Their  rustling  is  heard  at  the  distance.  Having 
lately  looked  on  Massachusetts  from  Washington, 
from  Toronto,  and  from  the  Mississippi  Valley ;  hav- 
ing found  only  too  much  power  in  such  ruffian  vitu- 
peration on  the  Mississippi ;  and  having  heard,  a  little 


6  LABOE^ 

more  closely  at  hand  than  we  can  here,  what  sand- 
lot  oratory  has  done  on  the  Pacific  coast,  I  am  not 
willing  that  the  fact  should  be  overlooked  that  our 
State  is  an  operative  quarter,  and  that  these  appeals, 
if  allowed  to  go  unrebuked  by  the  Church,  and  un- 
reproved  at  the  ballot-box,  must  ultimately  work 
mischief  with  the  half-educated  operative  population, 
largely  of  foreign  origin.  I  am  not  speaking  of  the 
skilled  operatives,  over  whom,  as  a  class,  a  political 
quack  has  little  power.  It  is  our  fault  that  any  part 
of  the  manufacturing  population  is  half-educated ;  it 
is  our  fault  that  any  portion  of  it  have  complaints 
to  make  of  employers ;  it  is  our  fault  that  occasionally 
the  faces  of  low-paid  laborers  have  been  ground  by 
capital ;  it  is  our  fault  that  there  is  not  a  good  under- 
standing between  labor  and  capital,  everywhere  up 
and  down  the  Atlantic  coast.  But  let  us  not  add  to 
our  faults  by  allowing  these  speeches,  fit  for  a  wild 
commiuiist  in  Paris,  to  go  utterly  unrebuked.  They 
are  not  as  unimportant  as  you  think,  in  view  of  our 
crowded  and  hazardous  future. 

While  I  would  have  the  factory  population  of  1980 
in  our  minds,  I  would  liave  the  Presidential  contest 
of  1880  there  also.  Especially  am  I  anxious  that 
working-men  should  remember  the  financial  distress 
ofC1873. 

Were  I  a  manual  laborer,  and  about  to  vote  to- 
morrow, I  should  call  my  family  together,  and  say: 
"  How  mucli  did  the  ])rice  of  our  necessaries  of  life 
rise  between  1860  and  1872?"  If  the  reply  were  a 
correct  one,  it  would  be,  "Sixty-one  per  cent."  — 


INFIDEL  ATTACK  ON   PEOPEETY.  7 

"  How  much  did  our  wages  rise  ?  "  —  "  Thirty  per 
cent."  Less  than  half  as  much !  Statistics  gathered 
by  the  Massachusetts  Labor  Bureau,  and  by  the  offi- 
cers who  took  the  last  national  census,  show  that  the 
war  currency  lifted  prices  sixty-one  per  cent,  and 
wages,  on  the  average,  thirty  per  cent.  "  Fiat-money, 
greenback  issues,"  I  should  remind  my  family,  "  made 
currency  plenty,  and  prices  went  up,  and  business 
was  lively ;  but  our  wages  did  not  go  up  as  fast  as 
the  prices.  Will  it  help  us  much  to  go  through  that 
experience  again  ?  We  want  fiat-money  once  more ; 
we  want  a  greenback  currency;  we  want  to  raise 
prices!  But,  if  the  prices  go  up  faster  than  our 
wages,  how  are  we  to  be  helped  by  the  change  ? 
How  are  we  to  avoid  loss  by  it,  and  hardsliip  ?  It  is 
the  notorious  history  of  all  inflation,  that  wages  are 
the  last  things  to  rise,  and  when  they  do  start  upward 
they  never  reach  so  high  a  plane  as  the  necessaries  of 
life.  When  the  fall  comes,  wages  go  down  quicker 
than  prices  of  food."  Therefore  I  should  say  to 
my  family,  "I  purpose  to  vote  for  hard  money." 
Out  of  pity  for  the  working-men  let  us  stand  by  the 
honest  dollar.     [Applause.] 

The  French  communist  has  learned  that  inflation 
is  no  friend  of  his  interests.  The  French  nation 
contracted  its  currency  sharply,  and  last  January 
resumed  specie-payments.  The  heresies  of  those 
who  defend  fiat-money  in  America  would  obtain 
very  little  hearing  on  the  Seine.  It  is  a  fact  also, 
however  often  you  may  have  been  assured  of  the 
opposite,  that  the  Bank  of   England   has  not  sus- 


8  LABOR. 

pended  once  since  the  resumption  of  specie-payment 
after  the  wars  with  Napoleon.  It  has  suspended, 
occasionally,  the  bank  act,  by  wliich  it  was  deter- 
mined that  a  certain  number  of  issues  should  go  out 
on  the  basis  of  a  certain  amount  of  reserves;  but 
never  has  there  been  a  time  since  1823,  when  the 
Bank  of  England  would  not  pay  a  pound  in  gold  for 
a  pound  in  its  promissory  notes. 

The  American  people  are  close  upon  the  great 
blessing  of  resumption.  We  are  so  unthoughtful,  so 
unmindful  of  what  our  commercial  prosperity  has 
done  for  us,  that  some  of  us  forget  the  firm  land 
which  our  feet  almost  touch ;  on  which,  indeed,  they 
are  planted,  although  the  feet  are  slightly  under 
water :  we  forget  all  that  prosperity  which  is  just 
before  us,  and  wish  to  turn  our  faces  again  to  the 
bottomless  sea. 

What  has  caused  hard  times  in  this  country  ?  It 
is  said  to  be  very  difficult  to  answer  that  question. 
My  reply  to  it  is,  that  the  present  hard  times  were 
caused  by  the  destruction  of  property  in  the  war,  and 
the  abuse  of  credit.  There  were  nine  hundred  mil- 
lions of  property  struck  out  of  existence  by  our  civil 
contest.  Suppose  that  there  are  ten  millionnaires 
in  the  State  of  Massachusetts ;  let  them  fail,  and  of 
course  distress  would  fall  upon  many  working-men. 
We  liave  thirty-eight  States ;  let  ten  millionnaires  fail 
in  every  State,  we  should  then  have  only  three  hun- 
dred and  eighty  millions  swept  out  of  existence,  but 
what  a  revulsion  tliat  would  make  in  commerce ! 
Nevertheless  we  had  more  than  twice  that  amount  of 


INFIDEL  ATTACK  ON  PROPERTY.  9 

money  sunk  by  our  civil  contest,  and  we  borrowed 
money  to  fill  up  the  gap.  The  government  went  into 
the  business  of  war.  This  obliged  it  to  go  into  the 
business  of  borrowing.  The  government  was,  as  it 
were,  a  great  factory,  taking  operatives  from  all 
quarters  of  the  nation ;  and  while  the  war  continued, 
and  while  our  credit  was  good,  of  course  times  were 
lively.  Speculators  rashly  abused  credit,  and  nearly 
all  men  seemed  to  forget  that  a  pay-day  must  come. 
I  will  -not  say  that  the  government  itself  abused 
credit,  for  we  put  a  limit  to  it ;  we  positively  promised 
we  would  issue  only  a  certain  number  of  greenbacks. 
Pay-day  has  come  at  last,  and  of  course  hard  times 
have  appeared  in  our  history.  In  spite  of  our  burdens, 
however,  we  have  lifted  ourselves  so  that  resumption 
is  possible  in  the  United  States  at  the  opening  of 
1879.  A  political  party  rises,  and  proposes  to  prevent 
resumption.  It  proposes  that  we  should  curse  our- 
selves with  a  political  currency.  It  proposes  to  make 
prices  high  by  allowing  that  currency  to  depreciate. 
It  proposes,  in  short,  to  repeat  the  disasters  a  fluctu- 
ating currency  has  already  brought  upon  us. 

Let  a  fiat-currency  be  scattered  over  the  land,  and 
let  it  depreciate,  and  millions  of  dollars  in  value  will 
be  taken  away  from  the  value  of  deposits  in  the 
savings-banks.  The  widows  and  orphans  sleeping  in 
attics,  families  living  in  cellars,  that  have  somewhat 
laid  away  for  a  rainy  day,  and,  worse  than  all  that, 
the  relatives  of  those  men  whose  graves  I  paced  over 
on  the  battle-field  of  Gettysburg  last  Sunday,  the 
maimed  men  who  came  from  that  field,  and  others 


10  LABOR. 

like  it,  the  pensioners  of  the  United  States,  who 
receive  now  thirty  millions  annually  of  the  public 
money,  will  find  this  income  depreciated  in  value 
millions  of  dollars. 

Our  honor  and  political  peace,  and  industrial  pros- 
perity, are  more  largely  at  stake  than  we  think. 
Vote  with  1880  and  with  1980  in  mind.  Remember 
1873.  So  large  is  the  unskilled  operative  popula- 
tion in  Massachusetts  on  the  Atlantic  slope,  and  so 
has  it  been  misled,  that  I  shall  not  be  surprised  if 
there  is  a  large  vote  for  monstrous  absurdities  in 
politics.  But  if  there  is  a  victorious  vote,  if  there 
shall  be  saddled  upon  us  the  disgrace  of  appearing 
to  justify  these  incendiary  speeches  and  these  insane 
doctrines  of  finance,  the  Massachusetts  paper  kite, 
and  its  California  appendage  wound  about  our  neck, 
will  be  large  enough  to  make  a  fool's-cap  for  a  State 
that  is  not  accustomed  to  wear  that  style  of  a  helmet. 
[Applause.]  We  must  take  care  of  the  poor,  or  they 
wUl  take  care  of  us.  We  must  take  care  of  dema- 
gogues, or  they  will  take  care  of  both  the  poor  and 
the  rich.     [Applause.] 

THE  LECTURE. 

When  a  bishop  of  Paris,  in  1871,  was  brought 
before  Raoul  Rigault,  one  of  the  boldest  of  the  Com- 
munists, the  venerable  ecclesiastic,  addressing  his 
accusers,  said,  "  Children,  what  do  you  wish  to  do 
with  me?"  —  "We  are  your  betters,"  said  Rigault, 
who  was  hardly  thirty  years  of  age.  "  Speak  as  if 
to  your  superiors.     Who  are  you?"     The   bishop, 


INFIDEL  ATTACK  ON  PBOPEETY.  11 

whose  charities  had  been  known  in  Paris  for  a  gener- 
ation, replied,  "I  am  the  servant  of  God."  —  "  Where 
does  he  live  ?  "  asked  Rigault.  "  Everywhere,"  was 
the  answer.  "Very  well,"  said  the  Communist, 
"  send  this  bishop  to  prison,  and  issue  an  order  for 
the  arrest  of  one  God,  who  lives  everywhere."  That 
order  was  never  executed;  but,  until  God  can  be 
arrested,  communism  cannot  succeed.  [Applause.] 
A  few  days  later,  Rigault  lay  on  one  of  the  streets 
of  Paris,  half  his  skull  shot  away,  one  eye  a  clot 
of  blood,  and  the  other,  open,  was  glaring  wildly  into 
space,  as  if  he  saw  the  Being  who  cannot  be  arrested. 

It  is  of  little  moment  whether  Germany,  France, 
England,  or  America  oppose  communism  or  not. 
The  important  question  is,  whether  the  Supreme 
Powers  are  communists,  and  whether  they  can  be 
arrested. 

We  shall  best  ascertain  what  the  reply  to  that 
question  is  by  asking  for  a  definition  of  communism 
and  socialism. 

1.  Communism,  as  defined  by  the  official  language 
of  its  most  radical  teachers  and  by  the  practical 
results  to  which  it  tends,  means  the  abolition  of 
inheritance,  the  abolition  of  the  family, 'the  abolition 
of  nationalities,  ^he  abolition  of  religion,  and  the 
abolition  of  property. 

2.  Socialism,  as  understood  by  its  practical  tenden- 
cies, means  all  these  five  things,  except  the  last. 

Communism  is  the  state  ownership  of  all  property, 
and  its  enjoyment  in  common  by, the  whole  popula- 
tion.    Socialism  is  state  ownership  of  all  property 


12  LABOR. 

except  that  which  the  individual  workman  himself 
must  have  to  supply  his  personal  wants. 

The  socialist  would  allow  the  existence  of  individ- 
ual property.  He  does  not  proclaim  with  Proudhon, 
and  with  all  communism  of  the  thorough-going  type, 
that "  property  is  robbery."  But  he  does  not  believe 
in  inheritance.  He  holds  that  a  man  should  be 
allowed  to  have  only  as  much  property  as  he  can 
personally  use.  The  extreme  socialist  of  the  French, 
German,  and  Russian  type  agrees  with  the  com- 
munist in  clamoring  for  the  abolition  of  inheritance, 
nationality,  family,  and  religion.  The  International 
Society  proclaims  itself  atheist.  A  procession  of 
twenty  thousand  socialists  singing  ribald  songs  passed 
lately  into  a  cemetery  in  Berlin  through  gates  on 
which  were  inscribed  the  words,  "  There  is  no  here- 
after." 

At  the  bottom  of  socialism  there  is  disbelief  in 
the  family ;  and,  although  tlie  family  is  not  in  the 
chronological  order  the  first  point  of  attack,  it  is  in 
the  logical  order;  for,  when  once  the  family  is 
destroyed  as  a  social  institution,  there  will  be  less 
reason  for  maintaining  the  laws  of  inheritance,  or, 
indeed,  any  of  our  present  regulations  concerning 
property.  I  am  not  asserting  that  all  socialists 
understand  by  socialism  these  four  things,  or  that  all 
communists  would  accept  my  definition ;  but  the 
ringleaders,  the  positive  men,  in  both  socialistic  and 
communistic  circles,  hold  these  notions.  I  am  not 
accusing  trades-unions  of  liolding  them,  altliough 
the  foremost  of  American  newspapers  has  endeav- 


INFIDEL  ATTACK   ON   PEOPEKTY.  13 

ored  to  prove  that  American  trades-unions  are  in 
far  too  close  alliance  with  secret  socialistic  organiza- 
tions. 

Many  well-meaning  people  are  supporting  positions 
more  or  less  socialistic,  and  abhor  the  extremes  of 
socialism,  strictly  so  called.  But  the  central  force  of 
any  great  movement  in  public  sentiment  usually 
draws  into  its  current,  first  or  last,  the  subsidiary  rip- 
ples. In  practical  conflict  on  the  field  of  politics, 
all  great  causes  generalize  themselves,  and  minor 
details  drop  out  of  view.  The  question  between 
North  and  South  in  our  civil  war  was  that  between 
freedom  and  slavery,  with  details  omitted.  The 
broad  issue  between  communism  and  socialism  on 
the  one  hand,  and  the  Christian  commonwealth  on 
the  other,  is  the  contrast  between  atheism  and 
theism.  It  comes  at  last  to  be  an  irrepressible  con- 
flict between  an  atheistic  and  a  theistic  arrangement 
of  society.  The  modern  socialistic  question  is, 
whether  God  shall  be,  or  shall  not  be,  arrested ;  or, 
rather,  whether  the  order  shall  be  given  for  his  arrest 
or  not.  i\re  the  Supreme  Powers  in  favor  of  the  ab- 
olition of  the  family  ?  Are  they  in  favor  of  the  aboli- 
tion of  the  laws  of  inheritance  ?  Are  they  in  favor 
of  such  a  re-organization  of  society  as  would  require 
the  uprooting  of  several  of  the  deepest  instincts  in 
human  nature  ?  Surely  the  love  of  home  and  the 
love  of  property  are  two  of  the  strongest  passions  in 
man.  The  question  is,  whether  the  Supreme  Powers 
are  levellers  up  or  levellers  down.  I  hope  they  are 
the  former,  and  that  the  progress  of  the  ages-  will 


14  LABOK. 

show  that  their  plan  in  this  respect  must  come  to 
fruition.  But  the  plan  of  socialism,  the  plan  of 
communism,  is  levelling  down.  The  distinction  be- 
tween white  republicanism  and  red  republicanism, 
between  American  constitutional  republicanism  and 
Parisian  communistic  democracy,  is  that  the  one 
levels  up,  and  the  other  levels  down.  If  I  am  not 
mistaken,  the  Supreme  Powers  are  on  the  side  of  the 
levellers  up,  and  exceedingly  against  the  levellers 
down.     [Applause.] 

It  is  a  common  impression,  that  American  society 
is  incapable  of  being  infected  to  any  large  degree  by 
the  wild  socialistic  notions  produced  chiefly  by  the 
political  evils  of  the  Old  World.  We  have  a  largely 
unoccupied  and  a  monumentally  free  country.  We 
have  no  law  of  primogeniture,  no  aristocracy,  and  no 
privileged  classes.  There  never  can  arise  in  Amer- 
ica, some  of  us  think,  any  great  danger  from  either 
communistic  or  socialistic  notions.  In  view  of  this 
position  of  public  sentiment,  I  beg  leave  to  raise  for 
serious  discussion  the  question :  How  large  is  *  the 
susceptibility  of  America  to  communistic  and  social- 
istic political  disease  ? 

1.  The  United  States  are  soon  to  be  the  wcaltlii- 
est  of  all  nations. 

2.  In  proportion  to  the  wealth  of  a  nation  on  the 
Avhole,  has  heretofore  been  the  inequality  of  its  citi- 
zens as  to  wealth. 

3.  It  appears  to  bo  inevitable,  therefore,  that,  as 
tlie  ridiost  of  all  nations,  the  United  States  will 
exhibit  large  inequalities  of  wealth  among  their 
citizens. 


INFIDEL  ATTACK  ON   PEOPERTY.  15 

4.  In  Christendom,  as  a  whole,  the  inequality  of 
men  as  to  wealth,  although  slavery  has  been  abol- 
ished, is  greater  now  than  it  was  four  hundred  or 
one  hundred  years  ago. 

5.  On  account  of  the  growth  of  all  means  of  inter- 
communication, modern  civilization  is  marked  by  a 
disproportionate  increase  of  the  size  of  city  popula- 
tions. 

6.  From  this  results  the  massing  of  both  capital 
and  labor  at  the  great  centres  of  population. 

7.  The  massing  of  capital  strengthens  it.  The 
massing  of  labor  weakens  it. 

8.  Universal  suffrage  in  the  United  States  is  sure 
to  carry  questions  between  capital  and  labor  into 
politics. 

9.  It  is  at  present  estimated  that  fifteen  hundred 
thousand  voters  belong  to  secret  organizations  in  the 
United  States. 

10.  It  is  their  avowed  purpose  to  acquire  political 
power,  and  to  govern  the  country  in  such  a  way  as 
to  cripple  capital  and  promote  the  interests  of  man- 
ual laborers. 

11.  Demagogues,  therefore,  are  likely  to  make  use 
of  this  issue  to  lift  themselves  into  power,  and  have 
already  commenced  their  work  on  a  large  scale. 

12.  No  hereditary  aristocracy  in  America,  and  no 
king  is  likely  to  appear  here  to  keep  order. 

13.  The  United  States  are  the  only  nation  in 
which  questions  between  capital  and  labor  cannot  be 
settled  by  force,  and  must  be  settled  by  reason. 

14.  The  safety  of  republican  institutions  in  the 


16  LABOE. 

United  States  depends  on  the  prevention  of  the 
formation  of  four  classes  here  :  an  indigent  class, 
an  unemployed  class,  an  ignorant  class,  an  unprinci- 
pled class. 

15.  The  only  effectual  means  of  preventing  the  for- 
mation of  the  first  three  of  these  classes  is  to  prevent 
the  formation  of  the  fourth. 

16.  The  keynote  of  safety  for  society  is  not  demo- 
cratic but  theocratic  equality.     [Applause.] 

The  commercial  greatness  of  England  commonly 
dazzles  politicians  and  men  of  affairs.  Her  foremost 
statesman  has  lately  printed  the  opinion  that  in  the 
race  of  commercial  prosperity  the  United  States  are 
passing  Great  Britain  by  with  swiftness  and  ease. 
Mr.  Gladstone  thinks  that  the  census  of  1880  will 
show  that  the  United  States  and  not  England  is  the 
wealthiest  of  all  nations.  The  income  of  the  United 
Kingdom  is  now  a  thousand  million  pounds  annually. 
This  enormous  fortune  has  been  accumulated  so 
rapidly,  that  if  Great  Britain  had  started  from  noth- 
ing fifty  years  ago,  and  progressed  at  the  rate  of  the 
recent  annual  increment  of  her  wealth,  she  would 
have  now  not  far  from  her  present  income.  "  While 
we  liave  been  advancing  with  this  portentous  rapid- 
ity," says  Mr.  Gladstone,  "America  is  passing  us 
by  in  a  canter."  (^North  American  Jleview,  Septem- 
ber and  October,  1878,  p.  181.)  Mr.  Gladstone  ven- 
tures to  proclaim  to  England  that  America  can  and 
probably  will  wrest  from  Great  Britain  the  far- 
stretclied,  glittering,  massive  sceptre  of  her  commer- 
cial  supremacy.     "We   have    no    title,"    says    Mr. 


INFIDEL   ATTACK   ON   PROPERTY.  17 

Gladstone,  "  and  I  have  no  inclination  to  murmur  at 
the  prospect.  Jf  America  acquires  commercial  su- 
pijemacy,  she  will  make  the  acquisition  by  the  right 
of  the  strongest ;  but  in  this  instance  the  strongest 
means  the  best.  She  will  probably  become  what  we 
are  now,  the  head  servant  in  the  great  household  of 
the  world,  the  employer  of  all  employed,  because  her 
service  will  be  the  most  and  ablest.  We  have  no 
more  title  against  her  than  Venice,  or  Genoa,  or  Hol- 
land has  had  against  us.  There  can  hardly  be  a 
doubt,  as  between  the  America  and  England  of  the 
future,  that  the  daughter,  at  some  no  very  distant 
time,  will,  whether  fairer  or  less  fair,  be  unquestion- 
ably yet  stronger  than  the  mother." 

"  0  matre  forti  fiUa  fortiori "  (Ibid.,  pp.  180, 181.) 
Thus,  weighing  all  his  syllables,  speaks  the  fore- 
most statesman  of  a  power  of  which  our  Webster 
used  to  like  to  say  that  her  morning  drum-beat,  fol- 
lowing the  sun  and  keeping  company  with  the  hours, 
encircles  the  world  with  one  continuous  strain  of  the 
martial  airs  of  England. 

Pardon  me,  gentlemen,  if  I  ask  you  not  to  under- 
rate America  commercially.  At  your  leisure  in  your 
libraries,  will  you  cover  the  United  States  on  the 
map  [illustrating  on  Guyot's  wall-atlas  hung  on  the 
platform],  and  then  take  up  the  screening  object,  and 
place  it  on  the  Roman  Empire.  Caesar's  dominion 
will  be  more  than  hidden.  Open  your  compasses 
until  you  touch  on  the  one  side  Boston  and  on  the 
other  San  Francisco,  and  you  have  separated  them 
so  widely  that  they  cannot  be  put  down  anywhere 


18  LABOR. 

within  the  bounds  of  Caesar's  domain.  The  longest 
line  that  can  be  drawn  inside  the  old  Roman  Empire 
will  not  reach  from  Boston  to  San  Francisco.  The 
Roman  eagles,  when  their  wings  were  strongest, 
never  flew  as  far  as  from  Plymouth  Rock  to  the 
Golden  Gate.  The  Roman  Empire  lay  on  the  shoul- 
der of  the  planet  in  shape  like  a  boy's  fish-reel,  its 
four  corners,  London  in  England,  Thebes  in  Egypt, 
the  Straits  of  Gibraltar,  and  the  frosty  Caucasus. 
Open  your  compasses  until  you  touch  on  the  one 
side  London,  and  on  the  other  Thebes,  and  you  have 
not  separated  them  as  far  as  you  must  to  span  the 
green  fields  and  steepled  cities  between  the  surf  of 
the  Bay  of  Fundy  and  the  waterfalls  of  the  Yo- 
semite.  Open  them  again  until  they  touch  Gibraltar 
on  the  one  hand,  and  the  Caucasian  range  on  the 
other,  and  you  have  not  separated  them  widely 
enough  to  touch  on  the  one  hand  the  Florida  reefs 

and  on  the  other  the 

"  Continuous  woods 
Where  rolls  the  Oregon,  and  hears  no  sound 
Save  his  own  dashings." 

Allow  me  to  pluck  up  the  territory  of  the  Ameri- 
can Union  as  Milton's  angels  did  the  liills  of  heaven ; 
and  employ  the  mass  as  a  pattern,  and  endeavor  to  cut 
from  some  other  portion  of  the  globe  another  piece 
like  it.  I  place  one  corner  of  it  upon  London,  and 
the  other  corner  projects  beyond  Thebes  in  Egypt. 
I  place  a  corner  on  the  Caucasian  range,  and  another 
corner  juts  into  the  Atlantic  Ocean  beyond  Gibraltar. 
This  stretch  of  territory  in  the  United  States  is  all, 


INFIDEL  ATTACK  ON  PROPERTY.  19 

or  nearly  all,  good  land;  while  the  interior  of  the 
Roman  Empire  was  composed  of  the  sterile  plain  of 
the  Mediterranean.  Where  else  can  you  cut  out  of 
the  globe  a  continuous  empire  equal  to  that  which 
the  United  States  occupy?  Bigness  is  not  greatness. 
Few  Americans  are  of  such  a  cheap  mood  as  to  think 
that  because  we  are  to  be  the  wealthiest,  we  are  to 
be  the  happiest  of  all  nations.  Physical  size,  how- 
ever, is  opportunity,  and  opportunity  occupied  is 
greatness.  A  territory  equal  in  size  to  ours  [illus- 
trating on  the  map]  might  be  cut  out  of  the  tawny 
shoulders  of  Africa,  but  it  would  be  principally  com- 
posed of  blistering  sands.  You  might  cut  it  out  of 
the  mighty  shoulders  of  Russia  and  Northern  Asia, 
but  it  would  be  nearly  all  a  stretch  of  sluggish  streams 
locked  in  ice  six  months  of  the  year,  and  fringed  with 
stunted  willows  and  birches.  You  might  cut  it  out  of 
Western  and  Central  Asia,  but  a  great  portion  of  it 
would  consist  of  the  rainless  regions  of  Arabia  and 
Persia.  Endeavor  to  cut  it  from  Southern  Asia,  and 
the  Himalayas  and  the  sterile  stretches  of  Thibet  are 
in  the  way.  Cut  it  from  the  Chinese  side  of  Asia, 
and  the  northern  portion  of  it  would  reach  into  the 
desolate  Arctic  plain.  I  thus  show  you  by  ocular 
demonstration  that  there  is  no  place  on  the  earth 
from  which  you  could  cut  a  continuous  territory 
equal  to  that  of  the  United  States,  unless  it  be  in 
South  America  itself.  There  is  a  tract  of  fertile 
land  so  large  that  when  we  add  it  to  the  tract  in 
North  America  we  have  no  hesitation  in  agreeing 
with  scholars  that  the  larger  number  of  the  arable 


20  LABOR. 

acres  of  the  planet  are  on  the  American  side  of  the 
globe. 

Mr.  Gladstone  says  that  "  the  distinction  between 
continuous  empire,  and  empire  severed  and  dispersed 
over  sea,  is  vital."  (^Ihid.,  p.  180.)  The  American 
Union  has  a  territory  fitted  to  be  the  base  of  the 
largest  continuous  empire  ever  established  by  man. 
For  geographical  reasons  we  cannot  well  avoid  comr 
mercial  pre-eminence  in  the  world.  I  am  proud  of 
America  because  of  her  physical  capacity ;  I  am  afraid 
of  America  for  the  same  reason :  and  yet,  for  politi- 
cal and  geograpliical  reasons  taken  together,  I  had 
rather  be  an  American  to-day  than  a  Roman  under 
Caesar,  or  a  Briton  under  Victoria.     [Applause.] 

Compared  with  the  Hayeses  and  Tildens  of  our 
future,  and  the  prizes  at  their  disposal,  Ca)sar, 
Antony,  and  Lepidus  were  schoolboys,  playing  with 
marbles.  The  most  powerful  inspirations  to  patriot- 
ism arise  from  the  great  scale  of  America ;  and  from 
the  same  source  will  arise  also  gigantic  temptations 
to  greed  and  fraud.  It  is  none  too  early  for  us  to 
fasten  attention  upon  the  fact  that  the  wealthiest  of 
all  nations  will  give  enormous  opportunity  to  capital. 

American  society  will,  no  doubt,  exhibit  great  in- 
equalities, not  so  much  between  classes,  as  between 
conditions  in  life.  We  have  no  classes.  Democratic 
society  is  so  arranged  that  tho  poor  man  can  rise  if 
he  have  ability.  The  cripples  and  the  roughs  sink 
to  a  low,  but  by  no  means  to  a  politically  ptnver- 
Icss,  position  in  American  society.  There  will  be  an 
unpruicipled  class  at  the  bottom  of  our  great  cities, 


DTFIDEL  ATTACK  ON  PROPERTY.  21 

because  a  man  who  has  principle  and  energy  can  rise. 
Instead  of  having  a  lower  class  filled  with  a  certain 
traditional  pride  in  its  own  position,  instead  of  having 
a  peasantry  that  may  possess  great  virtues,  we  are 
likely  to  have  a  lower  class  made  up  of  roughs, 
sneaks,  and  cripples.  Culls  go  to  the  bottom  in  free 
society.  That  is  very  unpopular  doctrine,  but  it  is 
high  time  to  proclaim  it.  In  the  future  contests 
between  capital  and  labor  in  this  country,  I  antici- 
pate a  fierceness  and  absurdity,  at  times,  in  the 
demands  of  labor,  that  are  rarely  found,  even  in  the 
Old  World.  I  anticipate  also,  a  high,  daring  unscru- 
pulousness,  at  times,  on  the  part  of  the  fifth-rate  busi- 
ness managers,  such  as  is  rarely  met  with  in  the  Old 
World ;  for  nowhere  on  the  globe  will  the  arms  of  capi- 
tal reach  around  such  enormous  enterprises  as  here. 

All  this,  you  say,  is  the  language  of  an  alarmist. 
Will  you  remember  the  Pittsburg  riots,  and  what 
might  have  happened  if  they  had  been  a  little  more 
extensive  ?  It  has  been  my  fortune  to  move  across 
the  Mississippi  Valley  several  times  since  I  had  the 
honor  to  stand  here  last;  and  I  am  impressed  with 
great  respect  for  those  who  say  that  the  railway  inter- 
communications of  this  nation  might  be  put  at  the 
mercy  of  strikers,  communists,  and  secret  socialistic 
organizations,  were  they  only  supported  by  political 
sentiment  enough  to  impede  for  any  considerable  time 
the  action  of  the  repressing  arm  of  the  executive  in 
the  state  and  nation. 

America  has  a  railway  arm,  and  a  water  arm. 
Stretching  from  the  Pacific,  as  from  a  shoulder,  the 


22  LABOR. 

railway  arm  ends  in  a  hand  which  clasps  the  Atlantic 
coast.  One  finger  ends  at  Baltimore,  and  you  call  it 
the  Baltimore  and  Ohio  Railroad ;  another  at  Phila- 
delphia, and  you  call  it  the  Pennsylvania  Central; 
another  at  New  York,  and  you  call  it  the  Erie  ; 
another  at  Boston,  and  you  call  it  the  New  York 
Central ;  another  plunges  north  of  the  Great  Lakes, 
and  drops  down  to  Portland,  you  call  it  the  Grand 
Trunk.  These  gigantic  fingers  unite  in  a  palm,  cov- 
ering Ohio  and  Indiana,  and  behind  the  palm  we 
have  the  railway  wristlet  at  Chicago.  This  is  the 
most  important  railway  centre  on  the  globe,  and  is 
likely  to  be  so  for  many  years  to  come.  The  water 
arm  is  the  Mississippi,  stretching  northward  from  the 
Gulf,  as  from  a  shoulder,  and  opening  its  palm  upon 
the  upper  part  of  its  valley.  St.  Louis  is  the  water 
wristlet  upon  that  arm.  Folded  across  the  breast  of 
our  beloved  America,  these  arms  are  yet  full  of 
health  ;  but  what  if  the  absurdities  of  socialism,  what 
if  strikes,  what  if  the  discontent  of  labor  and  of  an 
unemployed  and  indigent  and  ignorant  population  in 
cities,  were  to  settle  as  poison  in  the  joints  of  these 
wristlets,  in  a  more  thickly  populated  land?  Who 
does  not  see  that  a  million  five  hundred  thousand 
voters  in  secret  political  organizations  might  paralyze 
the  executive  arm  of  the  State  in  which  a  strike  or 
riot  should  occur,  and  so  might  give  us  trouble  for 
more  than  three  days  and  an  hour  ?  This  vast  chain 
of  intercommunication  between  the  West  and  the 
East,  if  broken  at  one  link,  is  broken  everywhere  for 
the  time.    These  railways  stretch  out  to  millions  of 


mFIDEL  ATTACK  ON  PROPERTY.       23 

working-men  who  live  in  the  joints.  When  one 
little  joint  at  Pittsburg  was  attacked  with  disease, 
the  whole  arm  felt  the  pain ;  the  shoulder  felt  it ; 
the  finger-tips  felt  it.  You  drove  the  disease  out  of 
the  finger-tips.  But  it  seized  on  many  a  joint. 
Several  of  the  knuckles  had  poison  in  them.  The 
wrist  was  only  kept  free  of  disease  by  a  pretty  severe 
application  of  the  pressure  of  military  force.  It  was 
my  fortune  to  be  in  Chicago  at  the  time  when  soldiers 
were  expected  from  the  Indian  reservations ;  and 
when  a  general,  the  moment  he  reached  the  railway- 
station  in  that  Western  city,  was  seized  and  put  upon 
the  shoulders  of  the  glad  citizens,  and  carried  away 
to  his  post  of  duty  in  triumph.  Mobs  were  put  down 
by  musketry  in  several  parts  of  Chicago.  If  that 
city  did  not  tremble  during  the  days  of  the  Pittsburg 
riots,  it  was  certainly  ill  at  ease.  Give  me  a  million 
or  two  of  voters  in  secret  organizations,  and  in  sym- 
pathy with  strikes ;  give  me  a  few  desperate  dema- 
gogues, calculating  all  the  chances  of  politics,  and 
ruling  a  quarter  of  our  press;  give  me  an  average 
population  of  two  hundred  to  the  square  mile  In 
the  United  States ;  multiply  the  perishing  and  dan- 
gerous classes  in  our  large  cities  in  proportion  to 
that  increase  of  the  size  of  the  general  population, 
—  and  I  undertake  to  say  that  the  wealthiest  nation 
of  the  globe  may  be  neither  the  happiest  nor  the 
strongest.     [Applause.] 

Universal  suffrage  is  not  likely  to  be  narrowed 
much  in  our  time.  Even  if  the  reading-test  were 
applied,  although  it  would  do  good,  it  would  not 


24  LABOR. 

free  us  from  the  power  of  demagogues  to  lead  the 
discontent  between  labor  and  capital  into  such  riot  as 
to  bring  at  times  perils  upon  trade.  We  certainly 
have  nothing  to  depend  upon  here  but  public  senti- 
ment and  the  national  will.  I  read  in  "  The  Atlantic 
Monthly "  an  article  of  high  merit,  on  certain  dan- 
gerous tendencies  in  American  life ;  but  in  the  next 
number  I  find  a  criticism  upon  it^  to  the  effect  that 
the  only  way  to  keep  the  United  States  in  order  is  to 
reduce  instruction  for  the  masses,  to  reading,  writing, 
and  arithmetic.  Does  any  thing  calling  itself  culture 
dare  to  dream  that  we  shall  ever  do  that  ? 

"  Preach  the  gospel  to  every  creature ;  "  that  is  the 
command  [applause],  obedience  to  which  has  brought 
into  the  world  most  of  our  present  political  difficulties, 
and  obedience  to  which,  if  continued,  will  drive  them 
out.  [Applause.]  A  continent  of  humanity  is  rising 
from  under  the  sea,  and  for  a  while  it  may  be  a  pes- 
tilential swamp ;  but  the  remedy  is  not  to  stop  its 
rising,  and  crush  it  back  into  chaos.  The  remedy  is 
to  keep  lifting  it,  lifting  it,  until  all  its  morasses  are 
firm,  sweet  land.     [Applause.] 

Let  us  fasten  your  attention  upon  the  great  out- 
lines of  our  means  of  safety.  They  are  the  preven- 
tion of  the  formation  of  an  impecunious  class,  of  an 
imemployed  class,  and  of  an  ignorant  and  an  unprin- 
cipled class. 

If  we  are  to  attack  the  evils  which  lead  to  the 
formation  of  these  four  classes,  we  shalldo  well  to 
strike  first  at  the  tap-root — the  unprincipled  class, 
the  morally  uneducated  class.    There  must  ceaso  to 


INFIDEL  ATTACK  ON  PROPERTY.  25 

be  an  unprincipled  class,  or  there  will  be  an  ignorant 
class,  and  then  an  unemployed  class,  and  then  an  im- 
pecunious class,  and  then  an  explosive  class,  lying 
under  the  sparks  of  the  oratory  of  demagogues. 
There  is  nothing  attracting  more  attention  through- 
out the  world  to-day,  than  the  methods  of  preventing 
the  formation  of  these  four  classes  in  Christendom ; 
and  there  is  nothing  but  Christian  endeavor  that  ever 
can  prevent  the  formation  of  an  unprincipled  class. 
[Applause.]  We  shall  not  call  on  writers  of  cipher 
despatches  to  enter  into  that  business.  [Applause.] 
Lord  Beaconsfield  stands  now  in  the  eye  of  the 
world ;  and,  when  he  was  younger  by  some  thirty 
years,  he  wrote  a  book  called  "  Tancred,"  in  which 
many  of  the  ideas  he  is  now  carrying  out  were  ex- 
pressed. You  remember  that  he  sends  a  young  Eng- 
lish lord  from  the  Thames  to  the  Jordan  in  search 
of  remedies  for  the  social  and  political  evils  of 
Europe.  We  have  had  a  diffusion  of  liberty.  Lord 
Beaconsfield  says,  and  to  some  extent  of  intelligence 
and  property ;  but  the  people  are  not  happy.  Here 
is  the  man  whom  Carlyle  calls  the  Hebrew  sorcerer, 
leading  English  lords  and  British  interests  as  by  some 
charm  of  superior  blood.  This  aristocrat,  this  guide 
of  the  privileged  classes,  makes  his  English  lord 
finally  kneel  down  at  the  Holy  Sepulchre  and  at 
Bethany  and  in  Bethlehem,  to  obtain  from  the  Un- 
seen Powers  a  response  to  his  prayer  for  guidance  as 
to  the  healing  of  the  nations.  He  passes  through 
the  jaws  of  death  at  Petra.  Finally,  in  the  mid- 
night of  Sinai,  Tancred,  as  you  remember,  goes  alone 


26  LABOB. 

to  the  spot  where  the  law  was  delivered,  kneels  down 
there  under  the  mysterious  brightness  of  the  Eastern 
stars,  offers  prayer  in  agony,  falls  at  last  into  a 
trance,  and,  looking  up,  he  beholds  the  genius  of 
Christianity  with  her  hands  spread  over  the  conti- 
nents. The  response  his  petition  received  from  her 
was  in  these  words.  Lord  Beaconsfield's  own,  the 
summit  of  his  wisdom  as  a  man  of  affairs :  — 

"  The  equality  of  men  can  only  be  accomplished 
by  the  sovereignty  of  God.  The  longing  for  frater- 
nity can  never  be  satisfied  but  under  the  sway  of  a 
common  Father.  Announce  the  sublime  and  solacing 
doctrine  of  theocratic  equality."  (^Tancred,t  Book 
iv.,  chap,  viii.) 

What  does  this  message  mean  ?  It  signifies  that 
in  a  just  organization  of  politics  men  will  encourage 
what  God  encourages,  and  repress  what  God  re- 
presses. It  means  that  in  a  perfect  organization  of 
society  the  bad  man  is  not  the  equal  of  the  good 
man,  but  that  whoever  is  loyal  to  God,  him  God  and 
all  good  men  will  help.  In  short,  the  ideas  of  dem- 
ocratic equality  and  of  theocratic  equality  conflict 
now  in  the  world ;  and  America,  going  back  to  the 
ideas  of  our  fathers,  would  be  going  back  only  to 
the  ideas  of  Beaconsfield ;  only  to  the  ideas  of  De 
Tocqueville  and  Burke,  who  tell  us  that  men  never 
so  much  need  to  be  theocratic  as  when  they  are  the 
most  democratic;  only  to  the  ideas  of  Chi'istiauity 
from  its  first  age  to  the  present  hour.  Let  us  lift 
high  above  all  clouds  of  class  animosity,  and  polit- 
ical intrigue,  the  great  ensign,  bearing  for  its  motto. 


INFIDEL   ATTACK  ON  PEOPEKTY.  27 

Theocratic  Equality.  Whenever  the  Church  does 
that  in  America,  she  will  see  in  the  heavens  above 
the  banner,  a  Cross  appearing,  and  above  that  the 
words :  By  this  sign  conquer !     [Applause.] 


n. 

SECRET  SOCIALISTIC  SOCIETIES. 


THE    ONE    HUNDRED    AND    TWELFTH    LECTURE    IN    THE 

BOSTON   MONDAY  LECTURESHIP,   DELIVERED   IN 

TREMONT   TEMPLE,   NOV.    11. 


Was  ist  des  freiesten  Freiheit  ?  Becht  zu  thun  I  —  (Jokthb: 
Egmont,  Act  IV. 

Though  we  are  willing  to  admit  poverty  and  passion  into  the 
franchise,  we  are  not  willing  to  give  iwverty  and  passion  the  lion's 
share  of  political  power  over  capital  and  knowledge.  —  Sib  E.  B. 
Lytton. 


n. 

SECRET  SOCIALISTIC   SOCIETIES. 

PEELUDE  ON  CURRENT  EVENTS. 

The  regeneration  of  Asia  is  a  colossal  event,  yet 
far  off,  but  approaching  us  with  an  assured,  and  of 
late  accelerated  step.  Great  Britain  is  now  essen- 
tially an  Asiatic  power.  This,  indeed,  is  the  claim  of 
the  leader  of  the  present  administration  in  the  United 
Kingdom ;  and  Lord  Salisbury  has  said  that  the 
boundaries  of  Turkey  are  in  some  sense  the  bounda- 
ries of  England.  It  is  very  interesting  for  Americans 
to  notice  how  several  dazzling  illusions  concerning 
the  English  occupation  of  Cyprus,  and  the  reform  of 
the  Turkish  Empire  under  British  political  pressure, 
have  been  dissipated  by  the  progress  of  events ;  and 
how  the  present  attitude  of  sober  thought  appears  to 
be  represented  by  the  cool  proposition  long  ago 
advocated  by  this  statesman  on  my  left  [turning 
towards  the  venerable  Dr.  Rufus  Anderson,  for  many 
years  Secretary  of  the  American  Board  of  Foreign 
Missions]  that  religious  rather  than  political  causes 
must    be    relied    upon   to   regenerate   Asia   Minor. 

31 


32  LABOR. 

[Applause.]  I  am  fortunate  in  speaking  in  pres- 
ence of  a  leader  of  American  effort  not  only  in  Asia 
Minor,  but  in  India,  in  China,  and  in  Japan,  and  in 
the  islands  of  the  sea.  Yours  has  been  the  advocacy 
of  an  imperialism  before  which  all  the  glittering  fan- 
cies of  a  Beaconsfield  pale.  [Applause.]  Sir,  Lord 
Beaconsfield  is  the  left  hand  of  reform  in  Turkey, 
but  the  work  you  have  been  doing  is  the  right  hand. 
[Applause.]  The  left  hand  needs  the  right,  and  the 
right  the  left;  but  the  left  needs  its  brother  more 
than  the  right  does.  God  grant  that  the  two  may 
be  clasped  in  sympathy  —  British  political  influence 
opening  the  way  for  American  religious  effort  in 
Turkey,  and  American  religious  effort  preparing  a 
field  for  those  reforms  which  Great  Britain  would 
force  upon  the  Sultan! 

It  appears  to  be  ascertained  at  last  by  the  news- 
papers of  the  United  Kingdom,  that  a  majority  of  the 
Mohammedans  in  Turkey  are  not  Turks,  but  Arabs ; 
that  many  of  them  are  mountain  tribes,  almost 
entirely  beyond  the  control  of  the  Sublime  Porte; 
and  that  concessions  wrung  from  the  Sultan  may  be 
entirely  refused  by  the  Kurds,  Yezidees,  Copts  and 
Druses,  Maronites  and  Turcomans,  Osmanlis,  Per- 
sians, Gypsies,  and  Hindu-Fakirs,  which  make  up  the 
motley  mass  of  the  population  of  Turkey  in  Asia. 
Wlioever  has  lived  long  in  the  East  will  look  with 
delight  upon  the  pressure  England  is  bringing  to 
bear  upon  the  Sultan,  but  not  with  perfect  expecta- 
tion of  the  swift  success  of  this  incitement  to  reform. 
It  is  understood  thorouglily  well  in  the  East,  that  the 


SECRET  SOCIALISTIC   SOCIETIES.  33 

Sultan  is  not  omnipotent,  and  that  it  is  as  yet  impos- 
sible for  him,  even  with  the  aid  of  England,  to  carry 
through  great  political  changes  in  the  face  of  the 
Koran,  without  inciting  religious  wars  and  setting 
population  to  massacre  population. 

When  I  look  toward  that  portion  of  Asia  which 
now  draws  the  attention  of  the  whole  world,  the 
most  hopeful  signs  of  progress  are  not,  in  my  judg- 
ment, to  be  found  in  the  British  occupation  of 
Cyprus,  nor  in  the  project  of  a  railway  from  the 
Syrian  coast  to  the  head  of  the  Persian  Gulf,  al- 
though such  a  road  must  be  built  before  many  years. 
The  distance  is  only  that  from  Boston  to  Chicago. 
My  hope  for  Asia  Minor  is  in  a  series  of  facts  illus- 
trating the  usefulness  of  American  teachers,  physi- 
cians, and  missionaries  there.  Indeed,  Lord  Stratford 
de  Redcliffe  used  to  say  that  the  future  of  the  East 
depended  on  these  men,  and  Lord  Beaconsfield  him- 
self has  lately  been  di:awing  his  best  information  from 
the  reports  of  Americans  in  Asia.  I  undertake  to 
affirm  that  in  the  mission-houses  of  Boston  and  New 
York,  more  complete  and  more  authentic  information 
concerning  the  present  condition  and  possible  future 
of  Turkey  can  be  found,  than  in  the  archives  of  the 
Turkish  Empire  itself.     [Applause.] 

The  Halys,  the  Araxes,  the  Cydnus,  the  Tigris, 
the  Euphrates,  the  Orontes,  and  the  Meander  yet 
roll  on  to  the  sea,  as  they  did  when  they  were  the 
burden  of  classic  Grecian  song,  and  the  scene  of 
imperial  events  in  history.  The  pleasant  lands 
through  which   Xenophon  led  the  retreat   of   the 


34  LABOB. 

Greeks,  and  Alexander  and  the  Crusaders  marched 
to  their  victories  in  the  East,  are  dear  to  American 
sympathies.  America  gave  to  Syria  the  first  scien- 
tific traveller,  the  first  translation  of  the  Bible  into 
Arabic,  the  first  printing-press,  the  first  modern 
church,  the  first  college.  In  1878,  Americans  print- 
ed at  Beirut  56,000  volumes  and  11,264,027  pages  in 
Arabic. 

When  Cyrus  Hamlin,  who  in  many  particulars 
deserves  to  be  called  the  father  of  education  in 
Turkey,  went  abroad,  there  was  not  a  school-book 
in  any  of  the  languages  spoken  by  the  people  of 
the  Empire.  Now  we  have  a  long  list,  not  only  of 
text-books  on  grammar,  rhetoric,  logic,  chemistry, 
surveying,  history,  zoology,  mental  and  moral  phi- 
losophy, political  economy,  chemistry,  anatomy,  phys- 
iology, and  medicine,  but  also  of  the  best  English 
works  on  distinctively  Christian  truth;  and  these 
in  the  Armenian,  the  Turkish,  and  the  Arabic 
tongues.  There  are  fifteen  thousand  pupils  in  com- 
mon schools  which  owe  their  origin  to  American 
influence.  In  the  high  schools  and  colleges  founded 
by  Americans  for  young  men  and  women,  fifteen 
hundred  are  already  gathered.  But  the  facts  which 
strike  publiij  attention  most  at  a  distance  are  the 
steady  shining  of  Robert  College  at  Constantinople, 
since  1862  a  beacon-light  on  that  stormy  coast 
between  Asia  and  Europe ;  the  steady  flame  of  the 
Syrian  Protestant  College  at  Beirut,  since  1865,  as 
many  pupils  in  it  now  as  in  Williams  College,  and 
as  able  a  corps  of  professors;  the  gleaming  of  tho 


SECRET  SOCIALISTIC   SOCIETIES.  35 

Central  Turkey  College  at  Aintab,  behind  the  hills ; 
and  the  effort  to  light  up  another  torch  —  God  bless 
the  attempt! — at  Harpoot,  on  the  flashing  waters 
of  the  upper  Euphrates.  [Applause.]  These  are 
American  lighthouses  on  a  dark  Mohammedan  coast, 
where  a  very  hungry  surf  roars  yet,  and  the 
beaches  have  been  strewn  with  wrecks  for  six  hun- 
dred years. 

More  than  one  American  physician  has  laid  down 
his  life  to  teach  Asia  Minor  the  healing  art.  When 
Dr.  West,  a  graduate  of  Yale  College,  after  eighteen 
years  of  faithful  service  as  a  physician  in  Turkey, 
was  on  his  death-bed,  prayers  were  offered  for  his 
recovery  in  the  Armenian  churches  and  Mohammedan 
mosques.  He  had  performed  some  fourteen  hundred 
operations  on  the  eye  alone,  and  the  thousands  of 
people  of  all  tribes  and  tongues  who  followed  his 
body  to  the  grave  regarded  him  as  a  national  bene- 
factor. 

Newspapers  little  by  little  acquire  popular  power 
under  American  guidance  in  Turkey.  A  slight  sim- 
mering caused  by  American  fire  may  be  heard  around 
the  whole  torpid  "edge  of  the  kettle  of  stagnant  water 
which  we  call  the  Turkish  Empire. 

Polygamy  begins  to  be  questioned.  Two  genera- 
tions ago  it  was  an  insult  to  a  Mohammedan  to  ask 
after  the  health  of  his  wife  and  daughters.  The  posi- 
tion of  woman  in  Asia  Minor  has  been  so  changed  in 
the  last  fifty  years  that  not  infrequently  now  you  may 
hear  a  Mohammedan  polygamist  saying,  "My  wife 
knows  how  to  read."     He  is  proud  of  the  fact,  and 


86  LABOR. 

this  is  an  immense  advance.  With  the  introduction 
of  even  a  slight  amount  of  intelligence  there  comes 
an  opening  for  religious  truth.  The  predecessor  of 
commerce  and  of  any  large  political  reform  in  Tur- 
key must  be  Christianity.  You  must  diffuse  consci- 
entiousness and  modern  ideas  in  a  measure  through 
the  Turkish  clans  before  you  can  mould  them  like 
wax  in  the  fingers  of  political  power. 

Do  you  say  that  Japan  shows  how  a  nation  may 
be  reformed  by  means  of  political  instrumentalities 
alone?  Native  Japanese  scholars  tell  us  that  the 
exterior  of  life  has  changed  there,  but  that  the  es- 
sence of  life  remains  yet  largely  unaltered.  (North 
American  Review^  November  and  December,  1878, 
p.  406.)  An  immense  seething  is  going  on  in  Japan. 
That  pot  boils ;  the  scum  is  at  the  top,  and  will  be 
removed  in  due  time ;  but  we  have  not  yet  lifted  the 
scum  from  the  bottom  of  the  Turkish  kettle  as  a 
whole.  After  all  application  of  American  and  Brit- 
ish iire,  the  simmering  is  hardly  audible  yet,  if  you 
listen  from  this  side  of  the  Atlantic. 

Into  this  population,  sunk  in  polygamy ;  into  those 
Mohammedan  quarters  where,  as  our  Seward  said 
when  he  came  back  from  his  tour  around  the  world, 
there  is  no  home  and  no  social  life,  —  the  leading 
political  party  in  England  proposes  to  introduce  the 
hands  of  British  imperialism,  pushed  by  the  Beacons- 
field  cabinet.  Turkey  is  yet  very  cold  wax  to  manip- 
ulate. My  feeling  is  that  until  religious  efforts  have 
been  carried  much  further  in  Asia  Minor  than  they 
have  been  heretofore,  its  manipulation  by  the  strong 


SECRET   SOCIALISTIC  SOCIETIES.  37 

political  grasp  of  Russia  and  England  may  break  the 
wax,  indeed,  but  not  mould  it  into  the  patterns  de- 
sired by  those  who  apply  the  political  pressure.  I  do 
not  expect  from  political  sources  the  regeneration  of 
Asia;  but  I  do  expect  from  these  strong  arms  the 
breaking  down  of  high  walls  of  exclusiveness,  and 
the  opening  of  Asia  to  better  than  political  influ- 
ences. Is  the  power  that  has  done  most  to  reform 
Asia  Minor  —  religious  effort  —  ready  to  go  forward 
with  its  enterprises  there?  Beaconsfield  opens  the 
Turkish  gate  :  our  opportunity  is  great  and  alluring. 
America  has  entered  Asia  on  the  west  side  by 
schools  and  colleges ;  what  is  she  to  do  on  the  east- 
ern? Politicians  of  California  tell  us  the  Chinese 
cannot  be  made  Christians.  The  governor  of  Cali- 
fornia says  that  there  are  no  signs  that  education 
and  religious  efforts  are  to  bring  the  Chinese  into 
connection  with  the  churches  in  America.  The 
same  mail  that  brings  us  that  intelligence  from  the 
governor  brings  intelligence  from  the  men  who  work 
in  the  Chinese  quarters,  that  there  are  at  this  mo- 
ment in  California  near  four  hundred  Chinese  mem- 
bers of  American  churches.  [Applause.]  There  is 
nothing  the  Chinese  on  the  Pacific  coast  desire  more 
than  a  knowledge  of  the  English  language  ;  and  to 
how  much  is  this  the  key  ?  A  stately  Chinese  del- 
egation at  Washington  is  honorably  received,  and 
the  Burlingame  treaty  is  not  yet  annulled.  When  I 
listen  in  the  Far  West  to  the  subterranean  voices  of 
public  sentiment,  I  find  that  the  politicians  of  the 
fourth  and  fifth  rank  and  the  hoodlums  are  against 


38  LABOR. 

the  Chinese,  but  that  a  very  different  sentiment  pre- 
vails with  the  educated  public  and  with  the  best 
business-men  of  the  Pacific  coast.     [Applause.] 

Great  historical  forces  now  give  America  an  im- 
mense opportunity  to  make  California  a  door  to 
China  on  the  east,  while  Beaconsfield  opens  the  door 
to  America  in  Asia  on  the  west.  The  certainty  is 
that  we  have  an  opportunity  in  California  to  'give 
Christianity  and  modern  education  a  good  reputation 
with  thousands  of  Chinamen  who  come  into  imme- 
diate contact  with  American  civilization.  It  is  prob- 
able, that,  before  many  years  pass,  cheap  factories 
will  be  built  in  China,  and  our  machines  bought  and 
set  up  there.  I  do  not  know  what  business-men 
are  thinking  of  when  they  propose  to  drive  the  Chi- 
nese out  of  California.  There  will  be  a  demand  for 
cheap  wares  in  China,  and  we  can  supply  the  Chi- 
nese trade  if  we  are  commercially  skilful ;  otherwise 
we  shall  be  undersold  by  the  Cliinese  themselves. 
The  best  of  our  inventions  will  be  copied  by  one  of 
the  most  imitative  nations  on  the  globe.  We  can 
have  the  carrying  trade  of  the  Pacific  if  we  want  it. 
Let  us  secure  the  introduction  into  China  of  a  good 
opinion  concerning  Christianity  and  education.  Let 
us  support  the  reform  in  Japan  which  now  seems 
to  promise  to  make  that  island  the  England  of  the 
Pacific.  Let  us  deepen  the  moral  and  educational 
influence  of  America  in  Asia  at  both  its  eastern  and 
western  gates. 

Providence,  as  I  judge,  does  not  intend  to  draw 
the  immense  arras  of  the  British  Empire  back  into 


SECEET   SOCIALISTIC   SOCIETIES.  39 

their  shell.  I  confess  that  I  have  more  sympathy 
with  Beaconsfield  imperialism  than  with  a  certain 
narrow  insular  parochial  policy  on  the  part  of  some 
of  his  English  opponents,  who  would  give  up  the 
colonies  of  Great  Britain,  and  would  allow  the  east- 
ern larger  half  of  the  United  Kingdom  to  dissolve 
if  it  pleases.  Perhaps  God  means  to  keep  in  order 
great  portions  of  the  world,  through  the  arms  of 
England  stretched  toward  the  sunrise  and  t^iose  of 
America  stretched  toward  sunset.  [Applause.]  I 
am  not  too  bold  in  hoping  that  the  time  may  come 
when  English-speaking  nations  will  keep  treaties 
with  each  other ;  will  have  no  war  with  each  other 
without  first  trying  arbitration  as  a  remedy;  will 
little  by  little  codify  their  international  regulations 
so  as  to  have  common  copyrights  and  patent  laws, 
and  thus  come  slowly  into  a  commercial  alliance  that 
will  strike  a  universal  peace  through  half  the  conti- 
nents and  all  the  seas.     [Applause.] 

THE  LECTURE. 

Let  us  imagine  ourselves  assembled  in  the  ruins 
of  the  Tuileries,  or  within  sound  of  the  pistol-shots 
lately  fired  at  one  of  the  most  paternal  of  emperors, 
or  in  sight  of  the  flash  of  the  weapon  of  Vera  Sassu- 
litch  in  St.  Petersburg,  and  of  seven  similar  subse- 
quent attempts  there  to  take  the  lives  of  Russian 
officials.  If  these  scenes  are  too  distant  to  produce 
any  deep  effect  upon  our  sensibilities,  will  you  be 
good  enough  to  assemble  within  view  of  the  flames  of 
the  railway-riots  at  Pittsburg  in  1877,  at  a  time  when 


40  LABOR. 

at  least  ten  American  towns  were  kept  in  order  by 
musketry. 

When  the  railway-riots  in  the  United  States  were 
suppressed  in  1877,  the  work  of  the  formation  of 
secret  labor  organizations  was  taken  up  with  vigor. 
It  has  progressed  at  such  speed  that  within  the 
last  six  months  very  interesting  facts  have  become 
public  concerning  three  or  four  important  secret 
labor  organizations  more  or  less  socialistic  in  their 
character.  I  am  quite  aware  that  I  cannot  speak 
from  personal  study  of  these  veiled  socialistic  socie- 
ties. Outside  of  the  membership  of  these  organiza- 
tions, there  are  not  twenty  men  in  the  United  States 
who  can  describe  them  from  actual  observation ; 
and  yet,  throwing  a  drag-net  over  all  current  publi- 
cations, and  some  secret  sources  of  information,  I 
have  been  enabled  to  bring  together  a  number  of 
facts  which  appear  to  me  to  be  very  suggestive.  In 
order  to  give  them  the  proper  emphasis,  I  must  go 
back  for  a  moment,  to  the  European  birth  of  certain 
American  communistic  parties. 

Here  is  the  great  philosopher  Fichte,  teaching  in 
Berlin,  and  he  inculcates  the  doctrine  that  every  man 
has  a  right  to  life,  and  therefore  to  the  opportunity 
to  earn  a  living.  If  a  man  has  no  opportunity  to 
earn  a  living,  he  must  steal.  Fichte  taught  this,  and 
that  such  theft  is  not  theft,  but  just  reprisal  against 
society.  There  are  certain  books  by  Fichte,  rarely 
read,  called  "  The  Foundation  of  Natural  Right,"  and 
"  The  Closed  State,"  and  "  The  Reason  State,"  and 
in  them  thoroughly  revolutionary  political  doctrines 


SECRET   SOCIALISTIC   SOCIETIES.  41 

are  taught.  Fichte  demanded  from  the  state  the 
right  of  labor.  If  a  man  cannot  live  by  his  labor,  he 
is  not  left  in  the  enjoyment  of  his  absolute  property, 
that  is,  his  life ;  and  is  thenceforth  not  obligated  to 
acknowledge  the  property  of  any  other  man,  since 
the  contract  of  the  state  to  secure  to  every  one  his 
own  property  has  been  violated.  Such  a  man  must 
be  aided,  lest  property  become  insecure.  At  the 
same  time,  Fichte  demands  that  the  state  shall  tole- 
rate no  idlers.  (See  Hubek,  Professor  J.,  article  on 
Social  Democracy  in  Germany,  International  Review^ 
November  and  December,  1878,  p.  803.) 

Ferdinand  Lasalle,  the  first  important  name  among 
the  agitators  in  the  socialistic  circles  of  Germany, 
was  a  pupil  of  Fichte.  He  adhered  throughout  life 
to  his  master's  philosophical,  'as  well  as  to  his  political 
theories.  He  never  became  a  materialist,  but  was  an 
idealist  and  pantheist  to  his  death,  in  a  duel,  in  1864, 
at  the  age  of  thirty-eight.  The  German  socialists 
now  render  to  his  memory  almost  divine  honors.  It 
is  Fichte  that  speaks  in  Lasalle. 

Karl  Marx,  who  gathered  his  knowledge  of  com- 
munism largely  from  French  sources,  abandoned  the 
idealism  and  pantheism  of  Hegel  and  Fichte,  adopted 
a  coarse  materialism  as  his  creed,  adjusted  to  it 
the  doctrines  of  Hiickel,  that  the  soul  is  only  the 
result  of  matter  in  motion,  that  there  is  no  immor- 
tality, and  that  conscience  points  out  no  authoritative 
code  of  morality.  "  With  me,"  says  Marx,  "  the  ideal 
is  simply  matter  transformed  and  translated  in  the 
human  head."     Religion,  he  thinks,  is  opium  for  the 


42  LABOE. 

people.  There  is  nothing  divine  in  man ;  there  is  no 
celestial  spark  in  him,  according  to  Marx.  Saturated 
with  this  materialistic  philosophy,  he  finds  it  very 
easy  to  adopt  false  doctrines  concerning  the  family ; 
very  easy,  after  having  abolished  the  family  in  his 
sclieme  of  thought,  to  draw  his  trenches  aroimd  in- 
heritance, and  so  to  abandon  the  ideas  of  the  modern 
world  concerning  transmission  of  property,  and 
plunge  onward  with  his  followers  into  the  abyss  of 
communism. 

In  Lasalle  you  find  the  eloquence  of  a  cultivated 
Jew,  and  also  in  Karl  ]\Iarx,  for  both  these  men  are 
of  Jewish  descent.  Lasalle  obtained  a  very  extensive 
education  in  jurisprudence,  in  liistory,  and  political 
economy,  and  was  an  exceedingly  brilliant  pam- 
phleteer. He  had  many  interviews  with  Bismarck, 
and  once  predicted  publicly  that  the  latter  would 
jjlay  the  part  of  Sir  Robert  Peel,  and  declare  himself 
in  favor  of  universal  suffrage. 

Lasalle's  central  demand  was  for  governmental  aid 
to  labor.  Here  is  the  burgher  class,  lie  used  to  say 
to  the  peasants  of  Germany ;  when  rich  men  wish  to 
build  railways,  the  State  aids  them.  When  you  wish 
to  found  co-operative  enterprises,  why  should  not  the 
State  aid  you  ?  Universal  suffrage  ought  to  be  pro- 
claimed, and  the  fourth  class  should  come  into  power. 
The  laboring  masses  should  found  i)roducers'  associ- 
ations on  the  hirgest  scale.  The  State  should  secure 
to  the  creditors  of  such  associations  the  payment  of 
the  interest  on  their  capital.  Thus  the  government 
should  assist  labor  in  its  penury  to  obtain  buildings, 


SECRET   SOCIALISTIC   SOCIETIES.  43 

machinery;  tools,  and  raw  material  for  manufactures. 
The  producers'  associations  should  take  into  the 
managing  partnership  all  their  hired  laborers,  and 
gradually  form  themselves  into  a  credit  assurance. 
Over-production  should  be  prevented  bj  the  State. 
Lasalle  thought  these  clumsy  schemes  would  change 
the  face  of  the  world  in  fifty  years,  so  that  it  would 
not  be  recognized  as  the  same  world.  A  few  of  his 
ideas,  no  doubt,  were  sound,  if  taken  out  of  their 
combination  with  the  rest ;  but  his  political  philoso- 
phy, as  a  whole,  was  ludicrously  shallow.  He  can 
hardly  be  called  a  communist,  however:  he  was  a 
political  liberal  of  a  dangerous  type.  (See  Meh- 
EING,  Die  Deutsche  SocialdemoTcratie,  Bremen,  1878.) 

It  is  important  to  make  a  broad  distinction  be- 
tween four  styles  of  political  sentiment  concerning 
the  distribution  of  property :  first,  co-operation,  a  very 
judicious  scheme  in  many  cases,  though  unsuccessful 
thus  far  in  most  instances  where  it  has  been  tried ; 
next,  political  liberalism  ;  then,  below  that,  socialism ; 
and,  at  the  bottom  of  all,  communism. 

Many  who  call  themselves  socialists  are  only  politi- 
cal liberalists ;  for  socialism,  defined  by  its  actual 
effects  in  practice,  is  now  atheistic,  and  so  is  com- 
munism, and  it  is  with  these  two  lower  ranges  of 
political  sentiment  that  I  have  always  to  do.  Possi- 
bly you  think  that  I  am  giving  too  stern  accounts 
of  the  ringleaders  among  communists  and  socialists, 
but  I  undertake  to  say  that  extreme  communism 
is  so  black  that  you  cannot  easily  do  it  injustice. 
The  Russian  nihilist,  the  German  extreme  socialist, 


44  LABOR. 

believes  in  no  hereafter,  and  in  no  God.  One  of 
the  most  popular  labor-songs  in  Germany  has  this 
couplet :  — 

"  Der  ist  ein  Lump,  der  eines  Gottes  Namen 
In  Wort  und  Schrift  demiithig  anerkennt." 

"  Only  a  vagabond  will  humbly  own 
There  is  a  God  —  with  word  and  pen." 

If  a  man  is  to  have  no  future  existence,  and  no 
judge,  he  may  do  as  he  pleases,  except  in  so  far  as 
enlightened  selfishness  forbids.  If  our  only  chance 
is  here,  we  may  as  well  take  what  we  can  get.  Fif- 
teen thousand  socialists  in  a  procession  passed  into  a 
cemetery  in  Berlin,  not  long  ago,  and  twenty  thousand 
in  another  procession  on  another  occasion,  and  buried 
comrades  with  orations  asserting  that  there  is  no 
immortality.  Berlm  held  her  breath  when  that  pro- 
cession moved  tlirough  the  streets,  because  she  feared 
a  riot  in  all  the  slums,  and  did  not  know  what  attack 
miglit  be  made  on  property.  When  the  pistol-shots 
at  the  Emperor  were  fired,  it  is  not  a  wonder  she  was 
alarmed. 

What  has  happened  in  Germany?  Why,  on  the 
death  of  Lasalle,  certain  German  working-men. 
Frenchmen  also,  and  Poles,  and  Bohemians,  met  at 
St.  Martin's  Hall  in  London.  The  date  was  18G4. 
They  founded  the  International  Society,  now  dis- 
banded, as  we  are  told,  but  which  is  to-day  supposed 
to  liave  two  and  a  half  million  men  in  close  synipa- 
tliy  with  it,  on  the  Continent  of  Europe.  Tlie  head- 
quarters of  the  International  Society  are  now  in  New 


SECKET   SOCIALISTIC   SOCIETIES.  45 

York  City.  It  is  managed  from  the  mouth  of  the 
Hudson  and  the  banks  of  the  Thames.  In  fact,  how- 
ever, the  headquarters  in  New  York  are  only  nomi- 
nally supreme.  Really,  the  cottage  of  Karl  Marx,  an 
exile  in  London,  is  the  throne  of  the  International 
Society.  He  manages  both  its  left  and  its  right 
wings  now.  The  right  wing  revolted  from  him  at 
the  Congress  in  Geneva  in  1866,  but  has  come  over 
to  him  at  last.  His  work  on  "  Capital,"  one  of  the 
most  thorough-going  defences  of  materialism  in  phi- 
losoph}^,  and  socialism  in  political  economy,  is  the 
New  Testament  of  the  International  Society.  As 
Marx  proclaims  himself  atheist,  so  does  this  immense 
organization. 

The  International  Society  has  been  accused  of 
bringing  on  the  riots  in  Paris,  when  the  Tuileries 
were  burned.  It  has  been  accused  of  having  had  a 
plan  to  raise  riot  in  the  principal  cities  of  Europe,  at 
the  time  Paris  was  attacked  by  the  communistic  mob. 
I  have  tried  to  ascertain  how  much  truth  there  is  to 
these  charges.  In  a  minute  investigation  of  the 
history  of  the  International  Society,  perhaps  the  most 
significant  document  on  which  I  have  been  able  to 
put  my  hands  is  a  letter  from  Karl  Marx,  written 
to  the  communists  of  Paris  just  before  their  rising. 
Marx  said  to  the  communists  in  April,  1871,  "  We 
are  as  yet  but  three  millions  at  most.  In  twenty 
years  we  shall  be  fifty,  an  hundred  millions,  perhaps. 
Then  the  world  will  belong  to  us ;  for  it  will  be  not 
only  Paris,  Lyons,  and  Marseilles  which  will  rise 
against  odious  capital,  but  Berlin,  Munich,  Dresden, 


46  LABOR. 

Vienna,  London,  Liverpool,  Manchester,  Brussels,  St. 
Petersburgh,  New  York,  —  in  short,  the  whole  world. 
And  before  this  new  insurrection,  such  as  history  has 
not  yet  known,  the  past  will  disappear  like  a  hideous 
nightmare,  for  the  popular  conflagration  kindled  at 
an  hundred  points  at  once,  like  an  immense  dawn, 
will  destroy  even  its  memory." 

Address  language  of  that  sort  to  the  petroleum 
communists  who  burned  the  Tuileries ;  address  it  to 
men  made  lawless  by  carelessness  of  their  interests 
on  the  part  of  despotic  governments ;  address  it  to 
men  who  have  been  taught  that  there  is  no  hereafter, 
and  that  God  is  only  a  necessity,  ruling  through  the 
laws  of  matter;  address  that  language  to  millions 
banded  in  secret  organizations  all  over  the  world,  — 
and  you  find  that  it  means  as  much  mischief  every- 
where as  occurred  at  Paris  on  a  small  area,  if  that 
mischief  is  necessary  to  the  success  of  the  desired 
revolution.  I  do  not  credit  the  International  Society 
with  the  shedding  of  all  the  blood  that  was  poured 
out  at  Paris;  but  the  secret  history  of  1871  in 
Europe  proves  that  if  this  organization  had  been 
strong  enough  to  have  raised  riot  in  other  large  cit- 
ies, as  they  did  in  Paris,  they  would  have  done  so, 
and  tliat  what  was  lacking  was  power,  and  not  the 
will.  Karl  Marx  is  credited  witli  saying  now  tliat  in 
the  United  States  and  in  Great  Britain,  and  perhaps 
in  France,  a  reform  of  labor  will  occur  without 
bloody  revolution,  but  that  blood  must  be  shed  in 
Germany  and  in  Russia,  and  in  Italy  and  in  Austria. 

Whatever  the  real  or  purposed  crimes  of  the  Inter- 


SECRET   SOCIALISTIC   SOCIETIES.  47 

nationals,  the  certainty  is  that  the  Paris  Commune 
frightened  Germany.  She  was  alarmed  yet  more  by 
the  power  of  the  socialistic  party  at  the  polls.  In 
the  German  elections  of  1871,  the  socialists  as  a  po- 
litical party  polled  140,000  votes ;  in  1874,  350,000 ; 
in  1877,  550,000.  In  1878  Bismarck  took  this  jump- 
ing-jack,  which  cannot  be  kept  down,  and  crushed 
him  back  into  his  box,  shut  the  lid,  and  turned  the 
key. 

The  suppression  of  socialistic  newspapers  and 
public  meetings  in  Germany  will  be  the  commence- 
ment of  another  crusade  for  the  formation  of  secret 
socialistic  societies  there.  It  will  be  the  re-invigora- 
tion  of  all  the  secret  socialistic  and  communistic  or- 
ganizations in  Europe.  Nevertheless  I  am  not  here 
to  sa}'-  that  America,  in  Bismarck's  place,  might  not 
have  done  substantially  what  he  did. 

Once  make  capital  thoroughly  afraid  of  socialists, 
tramps,  and  roughs,  in  the  United  States,  and  see  how 
swift  and  merciless  it  will  be  in  self-defence.  I  un- 
dertake to  tell  any  lawless  classes  at  the  bottom  of 
our  cities,  that,  if  they  thoroughly  alarm  capital  in 
this  country,  it  will  treat  them  with  as  much  severity 
as  the  necessity  of  preserving  the  public  peace  may 
require.  We  shall  keep  order  roughly  here,  if  neces- 
sary ;  for  all  Americans  are  capitalists,  or  expect  to 
be.  [Applause.]  Alarm  property  ;  let  it  be  under- 
stood that  there  is  real  danger  in  Chicago  and  New 
York  and  St.  Louis  from  socialistic  secret  organiza- 
tions ;  let  strikers  and  communists  and  demagogues 
grasp  the  throat  of  our  great  railway  intercommuni- 


48  LABOE. 

cations,  —  and,  when  capital  is  thoroughly  aroused,  it 
will  not  be  held  back  here  as  it  has  been  sometimes 
in  Europe,  by  a  feeling  that,  after  all,  the  rioters 
have  been  abused.  Thiersch,  in  his  great  work  on 
the  Christian  Commonwealth,  says  that  in  1830  and 
in  1848  in  Europe  many  a  ruler  was  made  ineflBcient 
by  a  secret  feeling  that  the  working-classes  had  not 
had  their  rights.  Kings  tremble  on  their  thrones 
when  they  feel  that  they  have  no  right  to  be  kings. 
In  America  the  people  feel  they  have  a  right  to  be 
kings,  and  they  will  exercise  their  right.  [Ap- 
plause.] There  will  be  no  handwriting  on  the  wall 
here  for  Belshazzar  to  look  at,  and  therefore  his 
knees  will  never  smite  together.  Of  course  a  repub- 
lic can  be  attacked  for  three  days  and  an  hour.  A 
republic  in  history  is  like  a  raft  on  the  sea :  you  can- 
not sink  it,  but  you  are  apt  to  put  your  foot  through 
it  into  the  waves.  A  monarchy  is  like  a  man-of-war : 
bad  shots  between  wind  and  water  hurt  it  exceed- 
ingly ;  there  is  danger  of  capsizing.  But  democracy 
is  a  raft.  You  cannot  easily  overturn  it.  It  is  a  wet 
place,  but  it  is  a  pretty  safe  one ;  and  we  are  on  it, 
and  we  are  to  have  order  here  ;  and  we  will  build  up 
the  raft  under  our  feet  until  there  is  dry  standing- 
room  for  us  all.     [Applause.] 

If  there  should  be  an  election  in  the  United  States 
showing  that  there  is  serious  danger  from  socialistic 
secret  political  organizations,  wliat  would  happen  ?• 
Why,  from  Plymouth  Rock  to  the  Golden  Gate  we 
should  have  a  propagandism  of  sound  ideas,  such  as 
in  the  last  six  weeks  glorified  Massachusetts  fi-om 
the  Cape  to  the  Berksliire  Hills.     [Applause.] 


SECKET   SOCIALISTIC   SOCIETIES.  49 

There  was  a  shamefully  large  vote  in  Massachu- 
setts, however,  for  utterly  absurd  political  ideas. 
The  cities  of  this  State  elected  an  inflationist  gov- 
ernor. This  occurs  in  the  green  young  days  of 
Massachusetts,  when,  as  yet,  her  factory-populations 
are  comparatively  content.  There  is  no  posture  of 
safety  in  politics  in  this  country,  except  that  which 
looks  forward  to  a  third  and  fourth  centennial,  and 
makes  preparations  in  advance  for  perils  of  which, 
as  yet,  we  hardly  see  the  outlines. 

Germany,  with  the  pistols  of  assassins  at  the  breast 
of  her  Emperor,  concludes  that  the  evils  of  suppress- 
ing socialism  are  fewer  than  those  of  allowing  it 
freedom  of  speech.  Russia,  under  an  emperor  who 
has  manumitted  the  serfs,  is  of  a  similar  mind.  A 
deep  growl  comes  up  from  the  Nihilist  atheistic  party 
in  Russia;  and  the  emperor  is  told  over  and  over 
that,  if  he  does  not  want  reforms  from  below,  he 
must  institute  them  from  above. 

A  remnant  of  the  Parisian  Commune  exists  in 
America.  If  it  were  worth  while  to  discuss  the 
small  influence  of  these  desperadoes,  I  might  pause 
to  describe  the  pestilent  organization  in  New  York 
now  headed  by  Edmond  Megy,  a  rufiian  who  assisted 
prominently  in  the  murder  of  Archbishop  Darboy 
and  other  hostages  at  La  Roquette,  in  Paris,  in  1871. 
For  the  crime  of  another  murder  the  villain  had 
been  condemned  to  twenty  years  in  the  French  gal- 
leys. After  burning  the  palace  of  the  Legion  of 
Honor,  he  fled  to  London,  and  then  to  New  York. 
He  may  now  be   seen,  not  infrequently,  presiding 


50  LABOK. 

over  banquets  where  ribald  songs  are  sung,  all  things 
sacred  blasphemed,  and  foul  and  ferocious  speeches, 
in  support  of  communism  and  socialism,  made  by 
drunken  men  to  drunken  audiences.  Justus  Schwab 
of  the  socialistic  labor  party,  and  Megy,  are  excellent 
friends ;  and  when  lately  the  latter  was  arrested,  the 
former  procured  him  bail,  and  conducted  his  defence. 
Ollivier,  Hauser,  Robinet,  members  of  the  Paris  Com- 
mune, are  fellow-workers  with  Megy  in  New  York. 
The  most  frequent  inculcation  of  their  newspaper, 
"  La  Centralization,"  is,  "  Use  lead  if  you  would  get 
bread." 

The  socialistic  labor  party  in  the  United  States 
was  founded  by  German  political  refugees  some  five 
years  ago,  and  is  now  supposed  to  contain  twenty- 
five  thousand  members  who  can  vote.  Here,  in  the 
language  of  its  leaders,  is  a  brief  statement  of  its 
aims :  — 

"The  entire  overthrow  of  the  present  social  sys- 
tem ;  the  abolition  of  all  personal  property  in  land 
and  other  means  of  production,  and  their  cession  to 
the  state ;  the  introduction  of  the  co-operative  plan 
in  labor,  so  that  every  laborer  may  be  a  partner  in 
every  factory  or  workshop;  the  compulsory  limita- 
tion of  the  hours  of  labor  to  eight  hours  a  day  or 
less,  according  to  the  requirements  of  the  unem- 
ployed workmen ;  the  regulation  of  the  prices  of 
labor  by  arbitration  between  the  employer  and  the 
employed  until  the  co-operative  system  is  introduced ; 
compulsory  education,  and  the  opening  of  all  col- 
leges and  universities  free  to  all  classes;  the  aboli- 


SECKET   SOCIALISTIC   SOCIETIES.  51 

tion  of  savings  banks;  the  abolition  of  direct  taxa- 
tion, and  the  institution  of  a  scaled  income-tax,  and 
the  taxation  of  all  church-property." 

Dr.  Donai,  Dr.  Stiebling,  and  R.  Sorge  assisted  in 
founding  this  party,  and  its  most  prominent  New 
York  member  is  the  notorious  Justus  Schwab.  This 
organization  or  party,  as  you  please  to  call  it,  has 
headquarters  at  Cincinnati.  If  you  go  to  that  city, 
and  stay  three  or  four  days  under  the  smoke  of  its 
industrious  chimneys,  and  pick  up  the  eccentric 
socialistic  newspapers  which  appear  in  the  beer- 
saloons,  you  will  find  a  strange  atmosphere  about  you, 
in  the  moral  as  well  as  the  physical  world.  The 
soot  in  the  physical  air  is  quite  noticeable,  and  here 
is  a  specimen  of  the  soot  in  the  political  air.  It  is 
a  labor-song,  directed  against  a  leading  American 
newspaper,  and  published  with  editorial  approval :  — 

-"  Whitelaw  Reid  had  best  beware ! 
Hurrah ! 
Or  the  working-men  will  make  him  stare ! 

Hurrah  !  hurrah  !  hurrah 
Let  Whitelaw  Reid  and  his  pals  but  dare 
The  freeman's  right  to  vote  to  impair, 
And  their  Gatling  guns  and  sabres  bare 
Will  neither  save  their  hides  or  hair. 
For  the  voter's  right  our  arms  we'll  bare, 
And  knives  will  flash  in  the  angry  air ! 

Hurrah  !  hurrah !  hurrah  1 " 

"  What  is  the  oppressed  laborer  to  do  now  ?  Let 
him  join  with  his  fellows,  and  light  the  fires  of  a  glo- 
rious revolution,  that  will  rid  the  world  of  so  many 


62  LABOE. 

useless  aristocrats,  and  make  America  really,  as  well 
as  in  name,  '  the  land  of  the  free.'  Up  with  the  red 
flag,  and  down  with  aristocracy !  " 

You  find  several  obscure,  but  not  wholly  powerless 
sheets  iu  Cincinnati,  filled  with  these  cheerful  doc- 
trines. 

Probably  the  most  important  of  the  working- 
men's  secret  societies  in  America  is  what  is  called 
"The  Knights  of  Labor."  As  to  this  organization 
there  is  very  little  public  information.  The  leading 
newspapers  of  New  York  City  claimed,  last  August, 
that  there  were  then  eight  hundred  thousand  men  in 
it.  Certain  police  agencies  which  have  been  set  at 
work  in  Chicago  have  investigated  this  society ;  and 
when  I  came  last  summer  upon  their  records,  I  was 
greatly  interested  to  notice  how  the  information  pub- 
lished at  New  York  was  confirmed  by  that  collected 
at  Chicago.  Some  of  the  sharpest  detectives  on  the 
continent  have  investigated  this  society  within  the 
last  six  months.  It  appears  that  the  Knights  of 
Labor  are  really  a  large  and  perhaps  a  formidable 
secret  organization.  The  names  of  its  leading  offi- 
cers, its  pass-words  and  oaths,  have  been  published. 
It  is  not  socialistic,  but,  under  the  influence  of  dema- 
gogues, might  probably  be  led  to  organize  wide-spread 
strikes  and  riots  with  little  cause. 

When  a  great  political  party  arises,  making  a  finan- 
cial issue  of  an  insane  sort,  the  multitudinous  secret 
lodges  of  all  kinds  are  under  strong  temptation  to 
unite.  Even  Justus  Schwab  in  New  York  has  a 
certain  influence  with  the  rougher  class  of  voters.     I 


SECEET   SOCIALISTIC   SOCIETIES.  63 

know  that  in  New  York  City  an  investigation  was 
lately  made  as  to  the  socialist  labor  party;  and  it 
was  found  that  only  eight  hundred  men  in  that  city, 
and  five  hundred  in  Brooklyn,  belonged  to  its  organi- 
zations. Of  these,  a  thousand  were  Germans,  and  of 
these  three-quarters  were  saloon-keepers.  Not  more 
than  half  a  hundred  Americans  were  enrolled. 
There  were  only  a  few  Irish.  But  the  Knights  of 
Labor  are  largely  under  American  control.  Accord- 
ing to  their  own  statement,  what  they  mean  is  to 
protect  labor  against  capital,  and  to  do  this,  if  neces- 
sary, by  inaugurating  simultaneous  strikes  in  differ- 
ent parts  of  the  country,  especially  at  railway-centres ; 
and  by  acquiring  and  using  political  power  to  cripple 
capital;  and  support  the  interests  of  the  working- 
men. 

You  will  probably  hiss  me  on  this  platform  for 
several  things  that  I  mean  to  say  in  favor  of  labor, 
and  I  shall  be  very  glad  to  be  hissed  first  for  what 
I  intend  to  say  in  favor  of  capital.  For  one,  I  want 
the  question  concerning  capital  and  labor  settled, 
not  according  to  the  ideas  of  labor  on  the  one  hand, 
nor  according  to  those  of  capital  on  the  other ;  but 
according  to  the  ideas  of  the  Christian  common- 
wealth, which  are  very  different  from  those  of  either 
party.     [Applause.] 

The  Knights  of  Labor  held  a  national  convention 
at  Reading,  adopted  a  constitution  for  the  whole 
country,  disbanded,  and  nobody  knew  they  had  met. 
The  fact  was  ascertained  by  going  back  upon  their 
record,  after  detectives  were  set  to  work.     One  thing 


54  LABOK. 

that  brought  out  the  character  of  the  Knights  of 
Labor  was  their  initiation  of  Catholics,  and  the  re- 
fusal of  the  initiated  Romanists  to  be  perfectly  frank 
in  the  confessionals.  In  Western  Pennsylvania,  a 
Romish  priest  found  it  difficult  to  obtain  information 
concerning  the  Knights  of  Labor.  A  man  in  the 
confessional  was  under  some  obligation  higher  than 
that  binding  a  Romanist  to  his  Church ;  -and  of  course 
the  priest  found  occasion  to  investigate  the  whole 
topic.  By  and  by  it  was  announced  that  the  sacra- 
ments would  be  denied  to  any  Romanist  bound  by  an 
oath  of  higher  obligation  than  the  tie  which  unites  a 
Catholic  to  his  mother  Church.  This,  of  course,  pro- 
duced commotion  among  Romanists ;  and  they,  for  a 
time,  were  slow  to  join  the  Knights  of  Labor.  A 
chief  in  a  central  committee  in  that  organization,  Mr. 
Stevens,  issued  a  secret  circular,  announcing  that 
Bishop  O'Hara,  in  Pennsylvania,  had  seen  the  ritual, 
and  approved  the  order.  Bishop  O'Hara  had  said 
nothing  of  the  sort ;  and  this  unauthorized  use  of  his 
name  caused  him  to  announce  that  he  could  not  and 
would  not  recognize  any  body  of  men  as  worthy  of 
the  sacraments  who  were  connected  with  an  oath- 
bound  society.  The  Knights  then  ordered  that  the 
oath  of  secrecy  should  not  be  binding  on  a  member 
in  the  confessional.  Many  Romanists  have  taken 
this  oath,  but  the  Catholic  Church  opposes  secret 
organizations,  and  has  kept  thousands  out  of  them. 
Here  and  now,  in  the  presence  of  a  Protestant  audi- 
ence, contiiining  as  much  intelligence,  perhaps,  as  any 
otlier  Protestant  gathering  that  meets  weekly,  on  tne 


SECRET   SOCIALISTIC   SOCIETIES.  55 

continent,  I  for  one,  beg  leave  to  thank  the  Romish 
Church  for  its  attitude  concerning  secret  socialistic 
societies.     [Applause.] 

The  trades-unions  of  the  United  States  are  now 
not  many  of  them  socialistic,  but  they  desire  politi- 
cal power,  and  will  accept  aid  from  socialistic  secret 
organizations  in  obtaining  it.  The  Nationals  will  do 
the  same,  and  have  done  so  already.  It  is  a  fact  of 
high  importance  that  the  great  secret  effort  of  social- 
istic agitators  and  politicians  is  to  capture  in  their 
net  the  trades-unions. 

On  June  1,  1878,  according  to  the  report  of  your 
Bureau  of  the  Statistics  of  Labor,  you  had  28,508 
skilled  and  unskilled  laborers,  male  and  female, 
seeking  and  in  want  of  work,  and  out  of  employ- 
ment, in  Massachusetts.  If  you  estimate  the  number 
of  the  unemployed  in  the  United  States  according 
to  the  proportion  in  Massachusetts,  they  will  not 
reach  three  millions,  as  the  socialists  assert,  but 
they  amount  to  nearly  two.  It  is  said  that  the 
pestilent  financial  heresies  now  in  the  air  have  suc- 
ceeded at  the  polls  wherever  secret  organizations 
have  surrounded  the  ballot-box,  and  that  one  reason 
why  they  were  not  more  successful  in  New  England 
is  that  our  territory  is  not  undermined  yet  by  these 
societies. 

A  million  and  a  half  of  voters  in  secret  organiza- 
tions, spreading  steadily  under  the  soil ;  two  million 
unemployed  people  in  the  United  States ;  and  dema- 
gogues searching  north,  south,  east,  and  west  for  ped- 
estals !     I  foresee,  not  ruin  in  the  American  national 


66  LABOR. 

future  under  universal  suffrage,  but  painful  political 
and  social  crises,  unless  by  public  discussion,  by 
justice,  by  Christian  philanthropy,  by  the  central 
ideas  of  the  Christian  commonwealth,  we  prevent  the 
formation  of  an  unprincipled,  an  ignorant,  and  an 
unemployed  class ;  bring  the  controlling  power  in 
politics  into  loyalty  to  sound  ideas;  estimate  men 
neither  by  the  bags  of  gold  nor  by  the  windy  social- 
istic philosophies  on  which  they  may  happen  to  ride, 
but  by  character ;  and  proclaim  all  classes  friends 
who  are  loyal  to  the  Throne  which  has  foundations, 
and  all  enemies  who  are  opposed  as  rebels  and  as 
traitors  to  that  supreme  Government.     [Applause.] 


m. 

RICH  AND  POOR  IN  FACTORY  TOWNS. 


THE   ONE   HUNDRED   AND   THIRTEENTH   LECTURE   IN  THE 

BOSTON   MONDAY   LECTURESHIP,    DELIVERED   IN 

TREMONT   TEMPLE,   NOV.    18. 


Families  of  wealth  are  not  snre  whether  they  may  not,  in  the 
next  or  in  the  third  generation,  themselves  sink  to  the  proletarian 
condition.  —  Sch^ffle  :  Quintessence  of  Socialism. 

O  diese  Zeit  hat  fiirchterliche  Zeichen, 

Das  Niedre  schwillt,  das  Hohe  senkt  sich  nieder, 

Als  konnte  Jeder  nur  am  Platz  des  Andem 

Befriedigung  verworrner  Wunscho  finden, 

Nur  dann  sich  gliicklich  filhlen,  wenn  nichts  mohr 

Zii  unterscheiden  ware,  wenn  wir  alle, 

Von  einem  Strom  vermischt  dahingerissen.  —  Goethb. 


m. 

RICH  AND   POOR  IN  FACTORY  TOWNS. 

PRELUDE  ON  CUEEENT  EVENTS. 

As  the  agent  of  the  New  York  Society  for  the  Sup- 
pression of  Vice  was  engaged  in  the  performance  of 
his  duties  at  Newark  not  many  years  ago,  he  was 
stabbed  twice  by  a  criminal  who  had  been  making 
an  infamous  use  of  tlie  mails  under  eighteen  different 
aliases  and  through  fifteen  post-offices.  The  second 
blow  of  the  dagger  laid  open  a  great  flesh-wound  in 
the  face,  severed  four  arteries,  and  came  very  near 
being  fatal.  {First  Annual  Report  of  the  New  York 
Society  for  the  Suppression  of  Vice,  p.  9.)  It  is 
with  men  of  the  type  of  this  assassin  that  the  ma- 
jority of  the  National  Liberal  League  of  infidels 
have  now  publicly  struck  hands  in  demanding  the 
total  repeal  of  the  laws  which  repress  in  the  United 
States  the  most  abominable  traffic  known  to  the  lep- 
rous outlawry  of  the  ghouls  and  ogres  of  the  city 
slums. 

Utterly  incredible  as  the  news  may  appear  to  excel- 
lent people,  who  are  slow  to  believe  reports  of  ghastly 

59 


60  LABOR. 

crime,  and  too  busy  to  attend  to  the  obscure  per- 
formances of  infidel  conventions,  the  following  facts 
are  all  matters  of  painful  public  notoriety  in  Boston, 
and  susceptible  of  the  most  explicit  proof  from  the 
pages  of  the  rationalistic  newspapers  and  official 
publications  which  I  hold  in  my  hands : 

1.  An  infidel  lecturer  has  lately  been  arrested  in 
Boston,  and  sent  to  Dedham  Jail,  for  making  an 
immoral  use  of  the  mails. 

2.  A  meeting  in  sympathy  with  this  public  crimi- 
nal was  held  by  infidels  and  Free  Religionists  in 
Boston  in  Faneuil  Hall. 

3.  At  the  National  Convention  of  infidel  Liberal 
Leagues  at  Syracuse  in  October,  a  large  majority  of 
the  one  hundred  and  thirty-eight  representatives  of 
cultured  free  thought  present  there  elected  a  set 
of  officers  known  to  be  in  favor  of  the  total  repeal 
of  the  present  United  States  laws  against  the  immoral 
use  of  the  mails. 

4.  A  minority  at  this  convention  seceded,  and 
formed  a  new  National  Liberal  League,  of  which  the 
object  is  to  make  the  postal  laws  loose,  rather  than 
to  repeal  them,  so  far  as  they  touch  the  topic  of  the 
distribution  of  infamous  matter. 

6.  Men  under  indictment  for  crimes  against  the 
postal  laws  were  prominent  at  the  Syracuse  Conven- 
tion, and  their  sentiments  are  reflected  in  the  action 
of  the  majority. 

6.  The  lawlessness  of  the  majority  is  officially  de- 
nounced by  the  loose  minority  in  terms  too  scatliing 
to  be  publicly  cited. 


KICH  AND   POOR   IN  FACTORY  TOWNS.  61 

7.  Official  and' unofficial  authorities  agree  that  the 
public  language  of  the  men  and  women  representing 
the  majority  of  the  Infidel  Convention  of  Syracuse 
was"^  unreportably  odious,  immoral,  and  vile. 

8.  According  to  the  official  confession  of  the  mi- 
nority, therefore,  the  principal  branch  of  the  National 
League  is  now  in  alliance  with  criminals  of  the  most 
low  and  infamous  type. 

It  is  evident  from  the  New  York  press  and  Syra- 
cuse journals,  and  from  the  testimony  of  this  infidel 
paper  which  I  hold  in  my  hands,  that  the  language 
of  the  defenders  of  the  successful  majority  of  the 
infidel  leagues  at  Syracuse  was  so  infamous,  that  it 
could  not  be  reported,  published,  and  sent  through 
the  mails,  without  subjecting  the  newspapers  thus 
disseminating  it  to  prosecution. 

At  Syracuse  the  members  of  the  National  Infidel 
League,  so  far  as  their  principal  organization  is 
concerned,  transformed  themselves  into  a  national 
lepers'  league  of  moral-cancer  planters.     [Applause.] 

There  are  several  things  that  injure  a  man  more 
than  to  cut  his  throat.  An  honorable  daughter  dead 
is  mourned  less  than  a  daughter  dishonored.  I  know 
a  school  of  superb  culture,  a  temple  of  sanctity, 
where  three  hundred  young  women  are  gathered 
under  the  very  best  religious  influences  and  the 
loftiest  educational  incitements.  I  have  wandered 
up  and  down  the  halls  of  the  palatial  building  in 
which  their  instruction  is  given  ;  I  have  admired  the 
works  of  art  there,  and  had  occasion  to  study  mi- 
nutely the  enthusiasms  for  art  and  social   improve- 


62  LABOR. 

ment  and  religious  usefulness  which  fill  that  school, 
and  vivify  its  lofty  regard  for  intellectual  culture. 
But  this  institution  publishes  no  catalogue.  Why  ? 
Go  to  the  New  York  Society  for  the  Suppression  of 
Vice,  to  the  Boston  Society,  or  to  the  committees 
which  have  been  organized  to  suppress  vice  at  Prov- 
idence and  New  Haven  and  Cincinnati  and  St.  Louis 
and  Chicago,  and  you  will  find  that  school-catalogues 
are  made  the  lattice-work  through  which  moral  lep- 
ers and  assassins  secretly,  at  night,  under  the  cover 
of  the  mails,  throw  their  poison  into  seminaries  of  all 
grades.  It  is  a  terrific  sign  of  the  times  when  shrewd 
men  of  affairs,  conducting  a  great  school,  dare  not  pub- 
lish a  catalogue.  The  criminals  whom  the  National 
League  of  infidels  encourages  make  this  caution  ne- 
cessary. I  show  you  the  caution  in  actual  exercise. 
Within  twenty  miles  of  Boston  the  resplendent 
school  I  have  described  stands  in  its  stately  park; 
and  within  fifty  rods  of  this  platform  is  a  hall,  the 
most  lionored  in  this  city,  where  a  meeting  was  held 
in  sympathy  with  the  poisoner  of  youth  who  is  now 
in  Dedham  Jail.  The  thoughts  which  these  facts 
suggest  cannot  be  publicly  expressed  ;  but,  if  they 
did  not  incite  to  moral  rage,  our  apathy  would  itself 
deserve  to  be  smitten  with  tliunderbolts. 

Daniel  Webster  once  found  Faneuil  Hall  shut  to 
liimself  and  his  political  friends.  A  hundred  signa- 
tures opened  it  last  summer  to  sympathizers  with  a 
moral-cancer  planter  I  All  your  reputable  press  was 
against  the  meeting.  Boston,  so  far  as  she  noticed 
any  such  gathering  of  apologists  for  a  convicted  crim- 


RICH  AND   POOR  IN   FACTORY  TOWNS.  63 

inal  of  the  most  infamous  type,  shuddered  at  it. 
This  city  believes  in  free  speech  and  the  right  of 
assembly,  but  not  in  moral  assassins  in  masks.  Is  it 
quite  decent  or  safe  to  give  the  enemies  of  Boston 
an  opportunity  to  injure  its  good  name?  Is  free- 
dom of  speech  to  be  carried  so  far  that  speech 
becomes  so  free  that  it  could  not  be  reported  and 
sent  through  the  mails  without  being  actionable  at 
law? 

A  small  minority,  less  than  a  quarter,  of  the  Syra- 
cuse convention,  seceded  from  it,  and  protested 
against  the  action  of  the  majority ;  and  this  minority 
tliinks  itself  very  virtuous  because  it  wishes  to  have 
a  little  restriction  put  upon  the  immoral  use  of  the 
mails.  But,  after  all,  what  does  even  the  seceding 
party  want?  The  editor  of  the  special  organ  of 
that  party  drew  up  and  submitted  to  the  proper  com- 
mittee a  series  of  resolutions,  and  he  prints  them  in 
columns  now  before  me ;  and  one  of  their  first  re- 
quirements is  "  that  no  indecencies  of  a  merely  inci- 
dental or  occasional  character,  however  reprehensible 
.  and  deserving  of  public  censure  on  moral  or  literary 
grounds,  shall  cause  a  forfeiture  of  the  freedom  of 
the  press,  or  constitute  a  just  reason  for  legal  prose- 
cution or  punishment."  That  is  the  style  of  law  the 
minority  wants,  —  a  law  with  loop-holes  in  it  large 
enough  to  drive  a  coach-and-four  through.  This 
same  set  of  resolutions  asks  for  "a  new  legislative 
provision  requiring  that  the  entire  publication,  for 
circulating  which  through  the  mails  any  person  shall 
be  prosecuted  in  the  United  States  courts,  shall  be 


64  LABOR. 

set  forth  in  the   indictment."     Who   does   not   see 
what  these  provisions  mean  ? 

There  were  two  parties  at  Syracuse,  this  paper 
alleges,  —  one  for  repeal,  and  one  for  reform.  A 
more  accurate  statement  would  be,  that  there  were 
two  parties  there,  —  one  for  lawlessness,  and  one  for 
looseness.  [Applause.]  There  was  a  party  there 
in  favor  of  no  law,  and  there  was  a  party  there  in 
favor  of  a  coach-and-four  loop-hole  law.  I  respect 
the  remnants  of  virtue  in  this  little  minority.  The 
editor  of  this  paper  says  that  when  the  minority 
resolved  to  secede,  their  action  was  a  great  and  to 
him  "unexpected"  protest,  and  "filled  him  with 
awe."  The  epic  dignity  with  which  the  collisions 
between  the  "petty  factions  of  this  small  convention 
are  described  in  this  official  sheet  reminds  one  of 
Horace's  description  of  the  trip  of  the  country 
mouse  and  the  city  mouse  to  Rome. 

"  Jamque  tenebat 
Nox  medium  coeli  spatium." 

Satires,  Book  II.,  vi. 

In  language  approvingly  cited  from  the  brave 
"  Syracuse  Standard  "  into  this  official  organ  of  free 
thought  (Nov.  7,  1878,  p.  535),  I  read  that  "Rivers 
of  IJoston,  now  resting  under  indictment  for  the  sale 
of  infamous  literature,  urged  a  square  expression  of 
the. congress  in  favor  of  his  views.  lie  wanted  the 
United  States  authorities  rebuked  for  what  they  liad 
done.  Wakeman  of  New  York,  a  supporter  of  Rivers, 
was  more  politic,  and  hesitated  about  giving  the  mi- 


EICH  AND  POOR  EST  FACTORY  TOWNS.  65 

nority  such  open  cause  for  disruption.  He,  and 
others  who  stood  with  him,  feared  the  odium  which 
would  fall  upon  them  if  the  minority  should  secede, 
on  the  ground  that  they  could  not  live  with  those 
who  sustained  and  fostered  the  sale  of  infamous 
literature,  and  sought  to  repeal  the  laws  making  the 
sale  a  crime.  Wakeman  believed  the  majority  had 
better  make  concession,  rather  than  be  compelled  to 
stand  alone  before  the  public;  and  hence  the  com- 
mittee on  resolutions  fixed  up  a  compromise  that  the 
postal-law  question  should  not  be  touched  by  either 
party." 

The  scheme  was  that  nothing  should  be  said  on 
the  subject  for  another  year ;  which  means,  that  on 
this  stupendous  theme,  this  blazing  matter  of  com- 
mon morality  and  decency,  a  convention  of  the 
representatives  of  cultured  free  thought  was  not  to 
know  its  own  mind  for  a  year !  A  promising  com- 
promise was  patched  up  on  this  precious  basis ;  and 
then  the  majority,  violating  it,  elected  a  board  of 
officers  composed,  according  to  the  official  statement, 
of  men  "  known  or  believed  to  be  strongly  in  favor 
of  repeal,  as  opposed  to  reform,  of  the  postal  law  of 
1873."  Thereupon,  when  a  vote  had  been  taken 
electing  a  president  by  the  majority  of  seventy- 
eight  votes,  leaving  only  fifty-one  to  the  man  who 
represented  the  minority,  the  latter  seceded,  and 
thirty-four  of  them  signed  a  protest.  A  few  more 
names  were  obtained  afterwards;  and  the  result 
of  all  is,  that  there  are  now  two  liberal  national 
leagues. 


66  LABOE. 

The  local  leagues  which  furnished  the  majority  at 
Syracuse  are  scattered  through  many  States,  and 
their  lecturers  can  be  relied  upon  to  teach  the  abomi- 
nable doctrines  of  the  majority.  The  evil  of  such 
inculcations  is  not  a  small  one,  and  frankness  con- 
cerning it  will  be  justified  by  all  thoughtful  friends 
of  moral  order.  At  Toronto,  not  long  since,  and  at 
Chicago,  I  met  representatives  of  infidelity  dis- 
tributing documents  at  the  doors  of  my  lecture-halls. 
I  have  heard  of  them  in  St.  Louis  and  in  Cincinnati, 
and  in  Rochester,  Baltimore,  Washington,  and  New 
York. 

In  this  same  official  organ  (^Ibid.,  p.  536),  I  find 
language  cited  from  the  faithful  Syracuse  press,  that 
I  dare  not  read.  You  would  drive  me  out  of  the 
door  yonder  if  I  were  to  quote  language  that  was 
uttered  at  Syracuse  by  Free  Religionist  women. 
"  But  one  question  arose  for  consideration,  and  that 
related  exclusively  to  infamous  literature.  By  per- 
sistent as  well  as  quiet  effort,  a  majority  of  the  le.igue 
was  composed  of  free-lovers  and  infamous-literature 
defenders ;  and  from  first  to  last  tliey  were  deter- 
mined upon  making  a  point  in  favor  of  its  free  cir- 
culation. Their  remarks  sometimes  almost  polluted 
the  atmosi)here  of  the  opera-house."  The  sense  of 
wliat  remains  of  this  official  extract  is,  that  if 
Thomas  Carlyle's  advice  concerning  raw  sceptics 
had  been  followed,  and  the  majority  had  been  cov- 
ered under  a  glass  bell,  the  atmosphere  there  would 
have  caused  them  to  perish  in  their  own  corruption. 
[Applause.] 


RICH  AND   POOR   IN   FACTORY  TOWNS.  67 

God  be  thanked  that  behind  this  scheme  of  infi- 
delity for  the  immoral  use  of  the  mails,  there  is  most 
significantly  little  financial  strength  !  It  is  officially 
stated  (^IMd.,  p.  437)  that  the  balance  of  money 
which  will  remain  in  the  treasury  after  paying  all 
bills,  had  been  "  carefully  gathered  and  husbanded 
for  the  cause  of  State  secularization,"  and  that  it 
will  now  "be  turned  over  to  the  cause  of  repeal," 
that  is,  of  lawlessness.  The  infidel  Liberal  Leagues 
have  had  an  organization  more  than  six  years.  They 
have  swept  the  Pacific  coast ;  they  have  officers  at 
work  in  the  Mississippi  Valley ;  they  have  used  skil- 
ful men  as  agents.  Some  of  them  have  ability ;  I 
suppose  some  of  them  have  wealth.  But  after  more 
than  five  years  of  effort,  sweeping  the  whole  broad 
floor  of  this  Union,  there  occurs  this  division,  and 
the  amount  of  plunder  to  be  carried  off  amounts  to 
"  nearly  two  hundred  dollars."  Heaven  be  thanked 
for  this  phenomenal  impecuniosity  ! 

Large  sums  are  now  required  by  the  societies  of 
Boston  and  New  York  for  the  suppression  of  vice, 
and  are  called  for  by  such  men  as  Howard  Crosby, 
Dr.  William  M.  Taylor,  Stephen  H.  Tyng,  Jr.,  Wil- 
liam E.  Dodge,  and  Dr.  John  Hall.  I  might  name  in 
a  similar  connection  a  dozen  of  the  prominent  leaders 
of  thought  of  the  great  metropolis  and  in  Boston, 
and  of  all  the  religious  creeds. 

God  has  said  that  whoever  offends  one  of  his  lit- 
tle ones,  it  were  better  for  him  that  a  millstone  were 
hanged  about  his  neck,  and  he  drowned  in  the  depths 
of  the  sea.     Is  there  no  granite  left  in  Massachusetts 


G8  LABOR. 

of  the  old-fashioned  sort,  out  of  which  millstones  can 
be  made  for  the  necks  of  cancer-planters  ?  [Ap- 
plause.] 

Both  these  schismatic  organizations,  the  majority 
and  the  minority,  have  presidents  in  Boston.  I  have 
in  my  hand  the  list  of  oflScers  of  both  bodies,  and  I 
find  that  the  chief  of  them  are  from  this  cultured 
city.  They  are  nearly  all  men  unknown  to  me ;  I 
do  not  know  even  the  pliilosophical  schoolboy  who 
edits  this  paper.  The  finance  committee,  composed 
of  three  members,  is  from  Chelsea  and  Boston.  This 
is  the  party  of  looseness,  as  opposed  to  that  of  law- 
lessness. This  is  the  minority,  which,  turning  State's- 
evidence,  now  denounces  the  majority,  and  so  gives 
us  at  last  official  authority  to  proclaim  as  an  indis- 
putable historical  fact  that  the  word  "  Infamy  "  is 
written  across  the  forehead  of  the  majority  of  the 
Syracuse  representatives  of  infidelity  on  this  conti- 
nent.    [Applause.] 

Do  but  behold  yon  poor  and  starved  band, 
And  your  fair  show  shall  suck  away  their  souls, 
Leaving  them  but  the  shales  and  husks  of  men. 
There  is  not  work  enough  for  all  our  hands  ; 
Scarce  blood  enough  in  all  their  sickly  veins 
To  give  each  naked  curtle-axe  a  stain. 

SuAKEspEAUE,  IIknuy  V.,  Act  Iv.,  Sceue  2. 
[Applause.] 


BICH  AND  POOR  IN  FACTORY  TOWNS.  69 


THE  LECTTJEE. 

God  grant  that  the  day  may  never  come  when 
American  society  sliall  be  divided  between  the  un- 
employed rich  and  the  unemployed  poor,  the  former 
a  handful,  the  latter  a  host !  If  in  Europe  large 
parts  of  society  are  thus  separated  from  each  other 
to-day,  the  fact  is  not  solely  the  result  of  the  exist- 
ence there  of  kings  and  aristocrats.  It  is  a  conse- 
quence, at  least  in  part,  of  influences  operating  oh 
this  side  of  the  Atlantic,  as  well  as  on  the  other,  and 
especially  of  the  great  laws  of  manufacturing  popu- 
lations, which  produce  under  democracies  as  well  as 
in  aristocracies,  if  allowed  to  operate  untutored  by 
Christian  philanthropy,  a  rich  employing  class,  and 
a  poor  operative  class.  I  need  only  to  invoke  the 
visible  presence  before  this  assembly,  of  the  lofty 
spirits  of  Sir  Robert  Peel  and  Lord  Shaftesbury,  to 
suggest  sufficiently  the  historic  perils  of  congregated 
labor  under  the  factory  system  in  large  towns. 
Would  that  in  the  air  above  every  manufacturing 
centre  of  New  England,  Robert  Peel  and  Lord 
Shaftesbury,  colossal  and  admonitory  in  archangelic 
stature,  might  each  stand  to  teach,  with  one  hand 
pointing  toward  Old  England,  and  the  other  stretched 
as  a  shield  over  New  England,  the  methods  of  avoid- 
ing here  the  perils  which  have  arisen  there  ! 

What  are  the  causes  which  separate  the  rich  and 
poor  in  manufacturing  populations  ? 

Two  great  principles  rule  modern  manufactures. 
They  are :  — 


70  LABOR. 

1.  That  subdivision  of  labor  increases  the  skill  of 
the  workman ;  and, 

2.  That,  other  things  being  equal,  the  larger  a  man- 
ufacturing establishment,  the  greater  the  profits. 

These  are  the  organizing  laws  which  explain  most 
of  the  phenomena  of  manufacturing  populations,  and 
will  continue  to  explain  them  for  ages  to  come,  al- 
though it  is  only  in  the  last  age  that  the  laws  can  be 
said  to  have  been  discovered. 

On  the  one  hand,  it  is  the  principle  of  subdivision 
of  labor  which  confines  the  modern  operative  more 
and  more  to  some  single  detail,  the  work  upon  which, 
after  it  becomes  a  habit,  calls  into  activity  only  a  few 
of  the  mental  powers,  has  in  it  no  variety,  and  so 
does  not  develop  the  mind  by  tasking  it  at  different 
points ;  is  in  itself  of  only  petty  importance,  and  so 
excites  little  enthusiasm  in  labor,  and  even  little 
pride  of  skill.  De  Tocqueville,  in  a  celebrated  pas- 
sage, discussing  the  modern  science  of  manufactures, 
asks  what  can  be  expected  of  the  human  intelligence, 
when,  year  after  year,  for  twelve  or  ten  hours  a  day, 
it  is  occupied  in  the  single  detail  of  making  heads  for 
pins.  (^Democracy  in  America^  vol.  ii.,  Book  II.,  chap. 
XX.)  The  principle  of  subdivision  of  labor  has  an 
inherent  tendency  to  dwarf  the  operative  mind,  un- 
less tlio  most  powerful  stimulants  are  applied  outside 
of  factory-hours,  to  develop  the  faculties  which  the 
manufacturing  work  never  calls  into  activity.  Out- 
side of  factory-hours!  Those  words  are  lightly  ut- 
tered only  by  the  inexperienced  in  operative  life. 
Outside  of'factory-hours  there  are,  properly  speaking, 


EICH   AND   POOR   IN  FACTORY  TOWNS.  71 

for  operative  populations  tasked  ten  or  twelve  hours 
a  day  in  close  apartments,  no  hours  at  all.  The 
labor  of  the  mill  or  of  the  mine,  which  goes  on  in  all 
weatliers  with  the  invariability  of  the  sun  in  its 
courses,  is  not  to  be  compared  with  agricultural 
labor,  interrupted  by  the  changes  of  the  seasons,  and 
even  of  the  daily  sky.  Twelve  hours  or  ten  in  a 
factory,  and  then  three  hours  or  two  enthusiastic 
pursuit  of  mental  culture !  No  eyes  yet  born  are 
destined  to  see  that  wonder  grow  common.  There 
are  a  few  mental  and  physical  constitutions  vigorous 
enough  to  combine  these  two  sets  of  hours,  and  so  to 
counteract  the  narrowing  mental  effect  of  labor  for 
years  at  one  unvaried  mechanical  detail.  But  the 
mass  of  operative  populations  can  be  expected  to  ex- 
hibit no  such  physical,  to  say  nothing  of  such  mental 
and  moral,  vigor.  They  are  swept  remorselessly 
under  the  wheels  of  subdivision  of  labor,  and  long 
hours.  I  put  the  question  to  persons  here  who  have 
had  any  experience  of  long  walks,  how  much  vigor 
is  left  to  a  child  tending  a  machine,  and  Avalking 
fifteen  or  twenty  miles  a  day,  or  a  woman  tending  a 
machine,  and  walking  thirty  a  day ;  and  day  after  day, 
six  days  in  a  week?  In  women  and  children,  who 
constitute  nearly  half  of  operative  populations,  how 
much  life  is  left  for  mental  culture,  after  ten  hours 
severe  labor  in  a  mill?  But  subdivision  of  labor 
increases  skill ;  increase  of  skill  increases  productive- 
ness ;  increase  of  productiveness  increases  profits ; 
and  long  hours  are  the  scythes  that  reap  the  gain. 
This  is  the  law  of  manufactures ;  and  it  is  only  say- 


72  LABOR. 

ing  what  is  evident  in  the  nature  of  things,  and  no 
less  evident  in  the  condition  of  all  manufacturing 
populations  where  factory  occupation  has  been  hered- 
itary for  three  or  four  generations  that  the  tendency 
of  the  system  is  to  make  the  operative  class  inferior, 
and  the  inferior  yet  more  inferior.  Emerson  stood 
at  the  door  of  the  factories  of  Great  Britain,  and 
wrote  that  society  is  to  be  admonished  of  the  mis- 
chief of  the  division  of  labor,  by  the  fact  that,  in 
three  generations,  the  robust  rural  Saxon  had  degen- 
erated in  the  mills,  to  the  Leicester  stockinger,  and 
to  the  imbecile  Manchester  spinner,  far  on  the  way 
to  be  spiders  and  needles.  (Emerson,  R.  W.,  Eiig- 
lish  Traits^  chap,  x.) 

On  the  other  hand,  the  operation  of  the  principle 
that,  other  things  being  equal,  the  larger  a  manufac- 
turing establishment,  the  greater  the  profits,  tends  to 
call  out  all  the  capabilities  of  the  minds  that  lead 
and  organize  in  manufactures.  The  'larger  the  man- 
ufactory, the  greater  the  profits,  other  things  being 
equal ;  and  so,  in  the  great  enterprises  of  manufac- 
tures, you  must  have  able  men.  The  master  is  more 
and  more  like  a  general,  and  must  be  capable  of  large 
combinations  and  wide  foresight.  His  business  tasks 
all  his  faculties,  makes  him  abler,  gives  him  social 
rank.  The  occupation  requires  capacity  in  the 
master  class,  attracts  capacity,  and  tasks  capacity. 
Men  of  education  are  often  drawn  into  manufactures 
by  the  allurement  of  the  size  of  the  enterprises  in- 
volved. The  tension  of  mind,  and  the  variety  of  its 
applications,  in  the  conductor  of  a  largo  establish- 


RICH  AND   POOR  IN  FACTORY  TOWNS.  73 

ment,  are  at  all  points  a  contrast  with  the  condition 
of  the  mind  of  the  operative.  By  the  necessary  op- 
eration of  the  two  great  laws  of  manufactures,  the 
master  is  elevated ;  but  the  operative,  little  tasked  in- 
tellectually, and  leading  a  monotonous  life,  becomes 
socially  lowered,  and  dependent  more  and  more  upon 
the  organizing  mind  above  him.  These  are  not 
peculiarities  of  Old  England.  They  belong  to  all 
manufacturing  populations,  in  New  England  or  else- 
where. There  is  nothing,  I  claim,  in  American  insti- 
tutions, that  will  prevent  here  the  subtle  operation 
of  these  two  great  laws.  Inevitably,  therefore,  as 
the  effect  must  follow  the  cause,  the  system  of 
modern  manufactures  in  large  populations  tends  to 
produce  a  superior  class  and  an  inferior. 

New  England  is  explicable  by  these  two  laws. 
Wherever  you  go  into  a  large  American  factory- 
town,  you  find  these  classes  in  formation.  Old  Eng- 
land is  explicable  by  these  laws.  I  went  through 
Manchester,  in  England,  carefully  studying  the  poor. 
Sometimes  I  walked  by  open  doors,  where  the  filth 
inside  the  threshold  was  as  deep  as  outside.  I  saw 
poultry  picking  up  their  living  not  oftener  outside 
than  inside  these  doors.  One  evening,  on  the  top  of 
an  omnibus,  I  went  out  into  the  suburbs  of  Manches- 
ter, and  came  upon  palaces ;  immense  private  estab- 
lishments, with  grounds  kept  in  the  best  English 
styles.  Whose  houses  are  these?  They  are  the 
masters'  houses  ;  manufacturers'  homes.  This  is  the 
country-seat  of  Sir  So-and-So,  who  owns  such-and- 
such  acres  of  factories  in  Manchester,  under  the  soot 


74  LABOR. 

yoDder.  Where  do  his  workmen  live?  They  must 
live  close  to  their  work,  under  the  eaves  of  the 
factories;  and  I  found  I  had  been  studjdng  the 
homes  of  the  operatives  employed  by  these  very 
princes  and  masters.  Skilled  operatives'  houses  in 
Manchester  are  often  very  comfortable,  but  I  am 
speaking  of  the  condition  of  the  lowest-paid  labor- 
ers. I  saw  children  in  mop-rag  costume,  and  with 
hardly  enough  of  that  to  cover  their  nakedness. 

There  was  before  me  in  Manchester  what  does 
not  yet  exist  in  New  England,  —  an  hereditary  class 
of  operatives.  Little  by  little  men  had  gone  down 
to  the  squalid  condition  in  hovels  where  I  saw  chil- 
dren fight  over  a  piece  of  fish  dropped  from  a  ped- 
dler's cart.  I  have  stood  there  myself,  and  peeled  an 
orange,  and  the  peel  was  picked  up  swiftly  from  the 
sidewalk,  and  eaten  by  hungry  children.  I  could 
fire  an  arrow  in  the  street  over  sixty  or  eighty  chil- 
dren that  looked  as  if  they  had  been  unwashed  from 
birth.  Within  a  cannon-shot  stood  these  palaces  of 
the  manufacturers.  That  contrast  is  seen  all  through 
the  Old  World ;  and  it  results  from  these  great  prin- 
ciples, that  subdivision  of  labor  increases  the  skill  of 
the  operative,  and  that  the  larger  the  establislnnent 
the  greater  tlie  profits.  The  man  who  manages  the 
great  establishment  may  beoome  rich,  and  can  take 
care  of  himself;  the  man  who  makes  tlie  pin-bead 
loses  capacity  to  do  any  thing  else.  If  he  loses  the 
opportunity  to  make  that  pin's-head,  he  knows  no 
other  trade,  and  may  suffer  terribly  before  he  caji 
learn  one,  and  find  auotlier  place  to  work. 


KICH  AND   POOR   IN  FACTORY  TOWNS.  75 

What  else  did  I  see  in  Manchester?  Near  one  of 
the  great  factories  was  a  long  brick  building ;  and  I 
saw  women  pass  it,  and  hand  their  infants  in  at  the 
gate.  When  six  o'clock  came  in  the  afternoon,  I  saw 
these  same  women  coming  back,  and  receiving  out 
of  that  gate  their  babes.  What  sort  of  housekeep- 
ing is  that  ?  In  the  great  factory-towns  in  the  Old 
World  you  often  find  an  establishment  near  the  fac- 
tory for  the  care  of  very  young  children  while  the 
mothers  are  in  the  mills.  The  girl  that  must  go  to 
the  mills,  and  work  ten  hours  a  day,  after  she  is  six- 
teen, is  not  likely  to  be  a  perfect  housewife.  The 
certainty  is,  that  an  hereditary  factory  population  is 
not  the  best  place  in  which  to  seek  good  housekeep- 
ers. In  the  Old  World  it  is  very  well  known  that 
social  rank  is  lost  partly  because  the  art  of  keeping 
a  home  neat  is  lost.  But  how  is  it  lost  ?  Because 
children  must  work  in  the  mills  to  eke  out  the  earn- 
ings of  the  parents.  The  mother  must  be  bound  to 
the  looms,  although  she  ought  to  be  at  home  taking 
care  of  the  children.  Her  babes  she  must  pass  into 
an  establishment  at  the  door  of  the  mill  to  be  taken 
care  of  while  she  is  earning  something  to  feed  them 
when  she  returns.  We  have  seen  little  of  this  ar- 
rangement yet  ■  in  New  England ;  but  who  knows 
that  trade  here  will  not  follow  these  precedents? 
The  operation  of  the  two  great  laws  of  manufactures 
can  be  foreseen  with  certainty.  We  find  these  laws 
spinning  the  two  contrasted  classes  in  our  New-Eng- 
land towns.  As  years  go  on,  and  the  first  effects 
themselves  become  causes,  these  laws  tend  to  make 


76  LABOR. 

the  superior  yet  more  superior,  and  the  inferior  yet 
more  inferior.  I  am  not  denying  the  advantages  of 
manufacturing  eminence,  but  stating,  as  a  motive  for 
public  caution,  what  political  economists  have  long 
acknowledged  as  the  disadvantages  of  such  eminence. 
Even 'John  Stuart  Mill,  using  England  as  a  lens, 
and  putting  behind  that  telescope  the  best  eyes  of 
political  economy,  writes  a  deliberate  chapter  (^Politi- 
cal Economy^  Book  V.,  chap,  vii.)  on  the  Probable 
Future  of  the  Laboring  Classes,  and  goes  so  far  as  to 
say  that  he  finds  the  prospect  hopeful,  only  because 
he  expects  the  entire  system  of  wages  to  be  super- 
seded by  that  of  co-operation.  But  the  system  of 
wages  is  interwoven  with  the  whole  structure  of 
modern  life,  and  does  not  show  a  tendency  to  vanish 
out  of  history  like  a  morning  cloud.  The  accumula- 
tions of  wealth  fall  chiefly  to  employers,  and  not  to 
operatives.  The  distance  between  the  two  classes  is 
a  result  of  deep  causes  arising  from  tlie  two  great 
laws  of  the  manufacturing  system.  It  is  out  of  these 
laws  that  there  inevitably  originates  what  has  been 
called  in  modern  times  a  manufacturing  aristocracy. 
De  Tocijueville,  using  this  phrase,  compares  the  ter- 
ritorial aristocracy  of  former  ages  with  the  manufac- 
turing aristocracy  of  to-day,  and  finds  the  former 
superior  to  the  latter,  because  it  was  bound  by  law, 
or  thought  itself  bound  by  usage,  as  the  latter  is  not, 
to  come  to  the  relief  of  its  serving-men,  and  to  suc- 
cor tlicm  in  tlicir  distresses  (Democracy  in  America^ 
vol.  ii..  Book  II.,  chap.  xx. ;  also  vol.  ii..  Book  IV., 
chap,  v.)    I  sec  no  charm  in  democracy  that  can  alter 


mCH  AND   POOR   IN   FACTORY   TOWNS.  77 

the  nature  of  things.  The  subtle  laws  of  subdivision 
of  labor,  and  of  size  of  establishment,  apply  to  manu- 
factures in  New  England  as  well  as  in  Old  England. 
Under  some  restraints  from  the  nature  of  our  institu- 
tions, they  will,  notwithstanding,  produce  here  as 
there  an  employing  class  and  an  operative  class,  and 
perpetually  tend  to  make  the  distance  between  rich 
and  poor  in  manufacturing  populations  wider  and 
wider.  De  Tocqueville  thought  that  the  friends  of 
democracy  should  keep  their  eyes  anxiously  fixed 
upon  the  operation  of  these  two  laws ;  and  that,  if 
ever  a  permanent  inequality  of  conditions  again  pene- 
trated into  the  world,  it  might  be  predicted  that  this 
is  the  gate  by  which  it  will  enter. 

In  all  this  I  am  not  blaming  capital  altogether, 
nor  am  I  defaming  labor.  I  know  how  the  most  of 
what  I  have  said  applies  to  Old  England  rather  than 
to  New  England.  And  yet  British  factory-laws  are 
certainly  superior  to  ours.  Skilled  operatives  have 
good  social  position  in  New  England.  It  is  the  glory 
of  society  here,  that  ability  is  reverenced  behind  the 
loom  as  well  as  in  the  pulpit  and  at  the  bar.  The 
dazzling  outburst ,  of  mechanical  inventiveness  in 
America  is  largely  a  flame  springing  up  from  the 
skilled  operative  population.  More  often  than  you 
think,  a  startling  invention  comes  from  the  opera- 
tive, and  the  patent  and  profit  of  it  go  to  the  master. 
[Applause.]  "The  London  Times"  saj^s  that  Greece 
did  not  possess  in  statuary  such  skill  as  America 
exhibits  in  machines  to  abridge  labor.  This  Greek 
element  in  our  civilization  lies  chiefly  in  the  un- 
skilled operative  class. 


78  LABOR. 

Nevertteless  I  ask  persons  here  who  are  not  under 
the  influence  of  local  prejudice,  to  contrast  the  for- 
eign operative  as  he  arrives  on  our  shores  with  the 
American  unskilled  operative  from  some  farm  of  New 
England. 

Contrast  the  present  operative  population  of  Low- 
ell with  the  working-people  who  fifty  years  ago,  in 
that  same  city,  published  "  The  Lowell  Offering."  I 
had  shown  to  me  the  other  day  a  complete  copy  of 
that  production,  and  was  assured  by  a  man  who  knew 
many  of  the  young  women  who  wrote  for  it,  that  the 
articles  were  really  produced  by  the  persons  whose 
names  they  bear.  It  is  a  classic  in  New  England, 
literature,  this  "  Lowell  Offering,"  wholly  composed 
of  productions  of  operatives  in  the  mills.  Many  of 
them  were  daughters  of  New-England  farmers.  Some 
of  them  came  from  the  homes  of  professional  men. 
Daughters  of  clergymen  were  among  the  authors.  It 
is  a  matter  of  notoriety,  that  the  operative  popula- 
tions of  Lowell,  Fall  River,  ancLLawrence,  and  other 
similar  towns,  have  become  largely  foreign. 

When  you  contrast  the  general  condition  of  the 
foreign-born  population  with  that  of  the  American, 
you  should  not  attribute  the  difference  wholly  to 
the  evil  effects  of  the  political  institutions  in  the 
Old  World.  The  two  great  laws  of  manufactures 
have  produced  most  of  the  traits  of  the  operative 
class  in  Great  Britain.  Even  the  Englishman  has 
been  degraded  in  England  by  factory-life.  You  say 
tliat  tlie  low-class  operative  here  is  usually  a  for- 
eigner!     We  should  be  more  moved  if  American 


BICH   AND   POOR   IN   FACTORY   TOWNS.  79 

blood  were  thus  degraded.  But  in  England  it  is 
English  blood  that  deteriorates.  In  the  poor  whites 
of  the  South  we  have  proof  that  American  blood  can 
deteriorate  also.  Our  blood  is  as  capable  of  deterio- 
ration as  that  of  the  English  by  unfavorable  condi- 
tions of  factory-life.  I  remember  pacing  hours  and 
hours  up  and  down  the  banks  of  the  canals  at  Man- 
chester, and  watching  the  mill-hands  come  and  go  at 
noon  and  night.  Once  I  fell  into  conversation  with 
a  group  of  working-men,  English  to  their  finger-tips, 
all  their  ways  English,  and  yet  they  reminded  me  of 
the  poor  whites  of  the  South.  Pallid,  half-grown, 
they  had  been  brought  up  almost  from  infancy  in  the 
factory-rooms,  and  gone  to  their  labor  without  en- 
thusiasm. They  talked  of  the  monotony  of  their 
work.  "  It  is  the  same  thing  day  by  day,  sir ;  it's 
the  same  little  thing,"  said  one  man  to  me.  "  One 
little,  little  thing,  over  and  over  and  over.  We  are 
weary  when  we  get  home.  We  are  so  tired,  we  do 
not  feel  like  reading.  We  sometimes  go  to  the  beer- 
shop,  where  there  is  light  and  cheer." 

You  say  that  the  operative  class,  if  allowed  shorter 
hours  a  day,  would  ultimately  patronize  the  beer- 
shops  all  the  more ;  but  that  is  not  the  proper  in- 
ference to  draw  from  the  seven  years  of  investiga- 
tion of  your  Massachusetts  Bureau.  I  hold  in  my 
hand  a  summary  of  its  magnificent  work  for  the 
last  seven  years,  and  I  find  your  officers  stating  most 
distinctly  that  the  mass  of  the  operative  population 
in  New  England  do  not  spend  large  sums  of  money 
upon  vice.     [Applause.] 


80  LABOR. 

3.  It  is  proved  by  the  careful  statistical  investiga- 
tions of  the  Massachusetts  Bureau,  that  the  wages 
of  children  are  absolutely  necessary  to  the  support 
of  most  families  of  working-men,  and  that  the 
trouble  with  the  operative  class  in  New  England 
begins  now  precisely  where  it  did  in  Old  England, 
with  the  forcing  of  the  children  into  the  factory 
too  early.  [Applause.]  Among  the  causes  which 
separate  rich  and  poor  in  manufacturing  populations 
is  the  circumstance  that  the  child  of  the  operative  is 
needed  to  support  his  father  and  mother,  and  so 
is  crowded  into  factory-work  early,  while  the  child 
of  the  master  can  go  to  school  until  he  is  twenty-one 
or  older.  After  long  delay,  Massachusetts  has  passed 
a  law  that  no  cliild  under  ten  years  of  age  shall  be 
employed  in  factories,  and  that  no  child  under  four- 
teen shall  be  so  employed  unless  during  the  year 
next  preceding  such  employment  he  shall  have  at- 
tended some  public  or  private  day-school  at  least 
twenty  weeks.     (  Chap.  52,  Acts  of  1876.) 

How  well  is  this  most  righteous  law  executed? 
Why,  turning  over  a  Boston  newspaper  last  Satur- 
day in  a  railway-car,  I  came  upon  this  typical  in- 
stance :  — 

"Truant-Officer  John  M.  Newhall  was  enjjaijed 
yesterday  in  distributing  among  the  shoe-manufac- 
turers a  copy  of  the  statutes  of  the  Commonwealth 
concerning  the  employment  of  children.  Tlie  tru- 
ant-ofTicer  lias  been  instructed  to  see  that  the  law 
is  strictly  enforced.  About  thirty  manufactories 
were  visited  yesterday,  and  in  nearly  all  were  found 


RICH  AND   POOR   IN  FACTORY  TOWNS.  81 

children  which  were  employed  contrary  to  the  pro- 
visions of  the  statute.  The  statute  provides  a  pen- 
alty of  not  less  than  twenty  dollars  nor  more  than 
fifty  dollars  for  each  offence.  In  one  manufactory 
on  Market  Street,  which  the  truant-officer  visited, 
the  manufacturer  expressed  his  contempt  for  the 
statute,  and  threw  it  away,  at  the  same  time  stating 
that  it  did  not  amount  to  any  thing,  and  that  the 
''employment  scare '  came  around  periodically.  The 
shoe-manufacturer  was  advised  to  read  the  statute. 
In  this  shop  were  found  six  children  which  were 
employed  contrary  to  the  statute."  (^Boston  Journal, 
Nov.  16.) 

Who  is  to  blame  here,  the  parent  or  the  manu- 
facturer ?  Look  a  little  more  closely  into  this  vital 
matter.  Open  the  cool  statistics  of  your  Massa- 
chusetts Bureau  of  Labor,  and  read  the  deductions 
drawn  from  the  complete  returns  of  earnings  and 
expenditures  received  from  four  hundred  families 
in  this  State  in  1875.  Never  before,  in  the  history 
of  the  world,  were  so  many  budgets  of  the  poor 
opened  to  public  gaze.  The  incisive  conclusions 
officially  reached  in  Massachusetts  as  to  earnings  are 
these :  — 

(1)  That,  in  the  majority  of  cases,  working-men 
in  this  Commonwealth  do  not  support  their  families 
by  their  individual  earnings  alone. 

(2)  That  the  amount  of  earnings  contributed  by 
wives,  generally  speaking,  is  so  small,  that  they 
would  save  more  by  staying  at  home  than  they  gain 
by  outside  labor. 


82  LABOR. 

(3)  That  fathers  rely,  or  are  forced  to  depend, 
upon  their  children  for  from  one-quarter  to  one-third 
of  the  entire  family  earnings. 

(4)  That  children  under  fifteen  years  of  age  sup- 
ply, by  their  labor,  from  one-eighth  to  one-sixth  of 
the  total  family  earnings. 

(5)  That  there  has  been  found  no  evidence  or 
indication  that  working-men  spend  large  sums  of 
money  extravagantly  or  for  bad  habits. 

(6)  That  without  cliildren's  assistance,  other 
things  remaining  equal,  the  majority  of  these  fami- 
lies would  be  in  poverty  or  debt.  (See  the  History 
of  the  Bureau  of  Statistics  of  Labor  of  Massachusetts^ 
by  Charles  F.  Pedgin  :  Boston,  1876,  pp.  83,  84.) 

You  never  will  understand  the  manufacturing 
population  of  New  England  or  Old  England  until 
you  fasten  your  attention  upon  the  manner  in  which 
the  necessity  of  child-labor  chokes  the  early  educa 
tion  of  the  operative.  Children  under  fifteen  years 
of  age  supply  by  their  labor  from  one-eighth  to  one- 
sixth  the  total  family  earnings  of  average  operative 
families  in  Massachusetts!  Does  this  make  any 
difference  in  the  social  standing  of  the  operative  and 
employing  classes?  Does  early  education  amount 
to  any  thing  as  a  start  in  life  ?  What  spins  tliese 
two  classes,  one  well-to-do,  and  the  other —  I  will 
not  say  oppressed  and  down-trodden,  but  certainly 
not  quite  well-to-do,  and  not  rapidly  improving  in 
intelligence  or  social  position.  Two  gi'cat  laws  I 
liavc  discussed  here  ;  but  you  cannot  probe  the  mysr 
tery  of  manufacturing  populations   to   the   bottom 


RICH  AND   POOR  IN  FACTORY  TOWNS.  83 

unless  you  blame  parents  themselves  for  sending 
their  children  into  factories  when  they  ought  to  be 
at  school,  and  the  manufacturer  for  violating  the  law 
which  requires  education  for  those  children  under 
fourteen  years  of  age. 

I  blame  both  parties,  the  parent  and  the  manu- 
facturer; but  there  is  an  excuse  for  the  parent.  I 
look  north,  south,  east,  and  west,  and  find  no  excuse 
for  the  manufacturer.  [Applause.]  If  you  please, 
I  have  no  church,  and  in  this  lectureship  neither 
capital  nor  labor  is  king.  [Applause.]  I  am  deter- 
mined that  this  platform  shall  be  put  on  its  knees 
neither  to  capital  nor  to  labor,  but  only  to  justice. 
[Applause.] 

4.  The  low  wages  of  the  parents  are  the  excuse 
commonly  alleged  by  families  for  forcing  their  chil- 
dren into  labor,  and  keeping  them  out  of  school. 
After  all,  however,  working-men  should  see  that 
the  competition  of  children's  labor  lowers  wages. 
Keep  all  the  children  in  school  who  would  be  there 
if  the  law  of  Massachusetts  were  executed,  and  the 
working-men  of  Massachusetts  would  have  more  to 
do.  This  competition  between  child-labor  and  ma- 
ture labor  is  a  most  mischievous  cause  of  the 
reduction  of  wages.  If  parents  are  not  governed 
by  the  love  of  culture  for  their  children,  they  ought 
to  be  influenced  by  the  love  of  good  wages,  to  keep 
them  out  of  factories  when  the  law  requires  them 
to  be  at  school.  But  here  we  have  the  fact  that 
wages  are  such  that  a  man  supporting  a  family  must 
depend,  for  a  quarter  or  a  third  of  the  family  earn- 


84  LABOR. 

ings,  upon  his  children.  Half  of  these,  perhaps,  will 
be  under  fifteen.  The  temptation  is  enormous  to 
drive  them  into  factories;  and  yet  when  a  manu- 
facturer has  these  children  under  his  control,  and 
cares  nothing  for  the  law,  and  tramples  it  under 
foot,  I  find  that  manufacturer  far  more  to  blame 
than  the  poor  parent.  The  latter  may  be  a  for- 
eigner, illy  acquainted  with  the  value  of  education 
in  this  country.  I  find  that  manufacturer  grasping 
and  lawless,  and  worse  than  the  laborer  who  may 
be  taking  only  the  necessary  steps  to  secure  his 
daily  bread.     [Applause.] 

You  think  I  am  a  partisan  of  a  class ;  you  will 
ascertain  that  I  am  a  partisan  for  all  the  people.  I 
am  a  friend  of  the  judge,  and  of  the  preacher,  and 
of  the  physician,  and  of  the  capitalist.  I  am  also  a 
friend  of  John  and  James,  and  Hans,  Patrick,  and 
Michael.  [Applause.]  The  certainty  is  that  we 
cannot  bless  or  ban  any  one  class  as  a  whole,  and 
that  only  when  both  capital  and  labor  are  brought 
up  to  the  height  of  Christian  principle,  shall  we  see 
any  solution  of  the  vexed  question  between  them. 
[Applause.]  There  is  nothing  but  the  Golden  Rule 
that  can  lead  New  England  out  of  painful  social  and 
political  crises  on  the  questions  of  capital  and  labor. 
[Applause.]  Say,  if  you  please,  that  you  care  noth- 
ing for  aged  people ;  say  that  you  care  nothing  for 
the  drunken  operative  in  his  old  age ;  say  that  the 
interests  of  advanced  life  are  not  to  be  regarded  by 
Christian  civilization.  Why,  in  New  England,  sure- 
ly, the  little  children  have  a  claim  to  your  pity ;  and 


BICH  AND  POOR   IN  FACTORY  TOWNS.  85 

these  laws  for  their  protection,  trampled  under  foot 
in  every  factory-town  in  Massachusetts,  have  a  right 
to  be  executed  by  a  vehement  and  authoritative 
Christian  public  sentiment.     [Applause.] 

5.  After  the  great  laws  of  subdivision  of  labor 
and  size  of  establishment,  and  after  the  poor  educa- 
tion of  children  and  the  low  wages  of  unskilled 
operative  labor,  we  must  mention  as  a  forceful  cause 
of  the  separation  of  rich  and  poor  in  factory-towns, 
the  existence  in  many  places  of  a  floating  population 
brought  into  existence  by  the  unsteadiness  of  the 
occupation  offered  by  many  styles  of  manufactures. 
A  floating  is  likely  to  be  a  homeless,  and  so  a  morally 
policeless  population. 

I  beg  leave  to  make  a  distinction  between  the 
fluctuating  and  the  uninterrupted  industries.  More 
than  one  problem  is  explained  for  the  stadent  of  the 
high  themp  of  the  moral  and  industrial  economy  of 
cities,  by  this  distinction. 

Certain  trades  produce  articles  in  the  very  nature 
of  which  there  are  constant  and  wide  changes  of 
fashion.  Evidently  these  articles  cannot  be  accumu- 
lated in  advance,  for  the  fashions  cannot  be  foreseen- 
at  any  great  distance.  A  stock  of  outgrown  fashions 
on  the  market  might  ruin  these  trades.  As  soon  as 
certain  annual  fashions  are  set  for  the  articles,  these 
industries  have  a  period  of  extraordinary  activity. 
When  the  demand  is  supplied,  a  period  of  compara- 
tive inactivity  follows,  until  the  next  set  of  fashions 
is  determined.  If  fashions  fluctuate  annually,  these 
trades  fluctuate  annually.     If  fashion  fluctuate  twice 


86  LABOR. 

annually,  these  trades  fluctuate  twice  annually.  On 
the  other  hand,  it  is  evident,  that  if  a  trade  produces 
an  article,  in  the  very  nature  of  which  there  does 
not  exist  this  susceptibility  to  a  change  of  fashion, 
it  may  work  from  year's  end  to  year's  end,  and 
accumulate,  if  need  be,  a  stock  of  its  own  products. 

The  latter  is  the  condition  of  the  coal,  iron,  wool- 
len, and  cotton  trades.  The  former  is  the  condition 
of  the  shoe-trade. 

All  trades  producing  articles  of  clothing  are  sub- 
ject, in  large  towns,  to  vast  annual  fluctuations  of 
activity.  In  Boston,  for  example,  the  length  of  the 
working  season  for  tailors  and  tailoresses  is  estimated 
at  ten  months ;  for  shop-work,  at  ten ;  for  paper- 
collar  makers,  at  ten ;  for  hosiery  and  rubber  and 
elastic  goods,  at  ten ;  for  hatters,  at  eight ;  for  corset- 
makers  and  hoopskirt-makers,  at  seven  and  a  half; 
and  for  straw-workers,  at  seven.  It  seems  a  mystery 
tliat  so  many  workmen,  worthy  in  every  way,  and 
sure  to  find  difficulty  or  distress  because  unable  to 
procure  occupation  elsewhere,  are  dropped  merci- 
lessly from  these  employments  by  the  thousands,  at 
certain  periods  of  the  year.  The  explanation  is 
simply  tliat  these  employments  produce  articles  sub- 
ject to  wide,  annual,  and  unforeseen  changes  of 
fashion,  and  cannot  accumulate  stock  in  advance 
that  is  likely  to  be  outgrown.  We  are  often  com- 
fortably told  that  the  wages  given  in  such  employ- 
ments are  of  fabulous  rates  by  the  day  or  week. 
Tliis  is  not  often  the  case  ;  but,  even  if  it  were,  for 
how  many  weeks  in  the  year  does  the  working  season 
liold  ? 


RICH  AND   POOR   EN  FACTORY  TOWNS.  87 

There  is  another  class  of  fluctuating  industries, 
in  which  the  variations  of  activity  arise  from  the 
changes  of  the  seasons.  Thus  the  length  of  the 
year  is  estimated  for  quarry- workmen,  at  ten  months ; 
for  farm-laborers,  at  eight ;  for  masons,  painters,  and 
plasterers,  at  eight ;  for  brickmakers,  at  seven. 

You  will  mend-  these  lulls,  you  say?  Hundreds 
of  years  the  artisans  in  the  fluctuating  industries 
which  I  have  just  named  have  tried  to  -mend  the 
lulls  in  large  towns  in  their  trades.  They  have  not 
succeeded.  To  do  so  would  be  to  counteract  a 
natural  law.  Rapidity  of  production  being  one  of 
the  causes  of  the  lulls,  it  is  found,  that,  as  machinery 
becomes  more  perfect,  working  seasons  tend  to  be- 
come shorter.  Machinery  grows  more  perfect  every 
day.  It  is  introduced  into  large  towns  more  promptly 
and  abundantly  than  into  small. 

In  a  city  establishment  containing,  for  example, 
operatives  enough  to  produce  twenty  sets,  or  twelve 
hundred  pairs,  of  shoes  a  day,  the  manager  gives  out 
stock  enough  in  the  morning  to  make  only  twelve 
or  fifteen  sets.  As  the  brisk  season  of  work  arrives, 
stock  enough  is  given,  out  to  make  thirty  or  thirty- 
five  sets  a  day,  and  more  help  engaged  if  it  can  be 
found.  But,  as  the  season  of  inactivity  comes  on, 
the  stock  is  diminished  again.  Perhaps,  with  a 
working  capacity  of  twenty  sets  a  day,  only  enough 
stock  will  be  given  out  for  twelve  or  ten  sets.  Of 
course  workmen  drag  on  without  half  enough  work 
for  a  while,  and  finally  are  unoccupied  by  the 
thousands. 


88  LABOR. 

Precisely  here  arise  the  chief  industrial  perils  of 
the  operative  class  of  this  branch  of  manufactures. 
Precisely  here  is  the  origin  of  large  floating  popula- 
tions, with  their  attendant  startling  moral  perils. 

6.  Floating  populations  are  largely  unchurched 
populations.  They  come  to  manufacturing  centres, 
and  stay  a  few  months,  and  go  back  to  their  homes. 
While  they  are  in  the  mills  they  live  in  boarding- 
houses.  They  are  without  churches ;  they  are  usu- 
ally without  local  property;  they  are  in  general 
without  the  moral  police  of  family  life ;  and  so,  little 
by  little,  drop  in  the  social  scale. 

"Where  are  the  men  who  dare  face  the  whole  prob- 
lem concerning  capital  and  labor  ?  Some  such  men 
are  in  this  audience ;  and  I  believe  that  their  right 
action  in  our  brief  day  would  do  much  to  set  fashions 
for  a  hundred  years  to  come.     [Applause.] 


IV. 

MRS.  BROWNING'S  CEY  OF  THE  CHILDREN. 

THE    ONE   HUXDRED   AND   FOURTEENTH   LECTURE   IN   THE 

BOSTON   MONDAY   LECTURESHIP,   DELIVERED   IN 

TREMONT   TEMPLE,   NOV.   25. 


I  confess  that  my  desire  and  ambition  are  to  bring  all  the  labor- 
ing children  of  this  empire  within  the  reach  and  the  opiwrtunities 
of  education,  and  within  the  sphere  of  happy  and  useful  citizens. 
The  march  of  intellect,  the  restless  activity,  the  railroads  and  steam- 
boats, the  stimulated  energies  of  mind  and  body,  the  very  congre- 
gating of  our  people  into  masses  and  large  towns,  may  be  converted 
into  influences  of  mighty  benefit.  I^t  the  State  but  accomplish  her 
frequent  boast,  let  her  show  herself  a  faithful  and  a  pious  parent.  — 
LoBD  Shaftesbuky  :  House  of  Commons. 

Patient  children  —  think  what  pain 

Makes  a  young  child  patient  —  x^nderl 

"Wronged  too  commonly  to  strain 
After  right,  or  wish,  or  wonder. 

Healthy  children,  with  those  blue 

English  eyes,  fresh  from  their  Maker, 

Fierce  and  ravenous,  staring  through 
At  the  brown  loaves  of  the  baker. 

Mrs.  Beownino. 


IV. 


MRS.  BROWNING'S   CRY  OF  THE   CHIL- 
DREN. 

PEELUDE   ON"  CURRENT  EVENTS. 

A  LARGE,  significant  star  has  lately  appeared  above 
the  horizon  of  American  religious  thought,  and  de- 
serves to  be  studied  by  any  who  watch  the  signs  of 
the  times,  although  it  is  peculiarly  invisible  to  the 
wall-eyed  radicalism  of  portions  of  Boston,  and  to 
haughty  rationalistic  specialists  generally.  Presumed 
to  be  mossy  and  media3val,  bigoted,  and  even  cow- 
ardly, the  oldest  theological  seminary  in  the  United 
States  has  recently  devoted  a  gift  of  fifty  thousand 
dollars  to  the  foundation  of  a  professorship  on  the  re- 
lations of  Christianity  to  science.  I  look  upon  this 
event  as  one  ray  in  a  dawn  standing  tiptoe  on  the 
mountain-tops,  and  as  a  cheerful  promise  of  a  day 
which,  even  if  it  arise  slowly,  is  yet  likely  to  bless, 
not  the  churches  only,  but  literature  and  politics, 
and  science  itself. 

The  religious  scholarship  of  the  United  States  is 
resolved  to  know  as  much  as  its  duties  require.     It 

91 


92  LABOR. 

recognizfes  as  just  the  crescent  emphasis  of  the  mod- 
ern demand  for  special  training  on  the  part  of  those 
who  are  to  discuss  scientific  facts  in  their  religious 
bearing.  This  claim  of  culture  at  large,  theological 
students  have  themselves  been  urging  in  their  own 
secret  whispers  for  years.  Possibly  I  may  be  per- 
mitted to  say  that  ten  years  ago,  as  a  student,  I  was 
dreaming  of  a  day  when  such  a  professorship  would 
be  founded;  and  it  may  not  be  improper  for  an 
enterprise  as  humble  as  the  Boston  Monday  Lec- 
tureship on  the  relations  of  religion  to  the  sciences 
to  make  a  reverent  bow  in  its  fourth  year,  and  with 
proper  self-forge tfulness,  to  this  new  professorship 
on  the  relations  of  Christianity  to  science.  Young 
men  have  been  asking  for  such  a  chair  of  instruc- 
tion, and  not  merely  theological  students,  but  col- 
lege graduates  in  all  the  professions ;  and  not  they 
only,  but  studious  men  of  affairs ;  and  not  young 
men  only,  but  aged  men  also.  The  most  famous  of 
the  professors  in  our  American  theological  schools 
have  elaborately  and  minutely  arranged  plans  for 
professorships  on  tlie  relations  of  Christianity  to 
science,  and  the  trustees  of  many  of  these  institu- 
tions have  waited  only  for  the  necessary  funds  to 
open  these  novel  departments  of  instruction.  The 
royal  generosity  of  a  lady  of  Massachusetts  lias 
given  the  oldest  tlieological  seminary  a  chance  to 
establish  an  oflicial  chair.  I  have  no  doubt  that 
similar  generosity  would  start  any  other  of  the 
larger  seminaries  in  the  land  on  a  career  of  similar 
work.     On  this  topic,  the  difficulty  during  the  last 


MRS.   BROWNING'S   CRY   OF   THE   CHILDREN.      93 

twenty  years  has  been  a  lack  of  funds,  and  not  the 
lack  of  a  purpose  to  meet  scientific  men  half  way, 
by  extending  theological  training  far  out  toward  the 
field  of  specialists  in  biological  and  psychological 
science. 

It  is  conspicuously  evident  that  the  education  of 
theological  students  in  that  circle  of  subjects  which 
most  vitally  concern  the  highest  human  interests  will 
be  wider  under  this  new  encouragement  than  that  of 
any  other  class  of  professional  students  in  modern 
times.  Men  are  not  readily  admitted  to  the  regular 
courses  of  study  in  theological  schools  unless  they 
have  been  through  a  college  course  of  four  years' 
study,  with  its  preparatory  course  of  three  or  four 
years,  all  devoted  to  rigorous  mental  discipline. 
Not  a  few  are  seriously  asking  for  a  fourth  year  in 
theological  seminaries. 

There  is  now  to  be  given  to  professional  students 
of  theology  special  training  if  not  in  observing,  at 
least  in  interpreting,  all  facts  of  strategic  value  on 
the  whole  blazing  line  of  contest,  or  of  agreement, 
as  you  please,  between  religion  and  science.  Some 
of  the  Andover  phraseology  is  peculiarly  happy. 
The  new  professorship,  which  has  been  desired  and 
projected  for  years,  is  frequently  and  properly  called 
a  chair  founded  to  discuss  the  relations  between 
religious  and  other  science,  or  between  theology  and 
the  other  sciences.  It  is  not  admitted  for  a  moment 
that  in  the  chair  of  theology  proper,  the  scientific 
method  is  applied  to  the  discussion  of  religious 
truth  less   strictly   than   it   is   to    be    in    this    new 


94  LABOB. 

department.  It  is  the  relation  of  science  to  science 
that  we  discuss  when  we  take  up  the  topic  of  reli- 
gion and  science,  and  their  connection  in  modern 
times. 

How  surpassingly  rich  is  the  field  which  lies  be- 
fore any  man  who  enters  upon  the  investigation  of 
the  relations  of  Christianity,  or  religion  at  large,  to 
science!  All  biological  investigation  opens  to  him 
as  a  vast  prairie  filled  with  billowing  flowers.  He  is 
to  seek  not  for  every  weed,  but  for  the  most  signifi- 
cant and  precious  growths.  Thus  his  task  is  less 
disproportioned  to  human  strength  than  it  would  at 
first  appear.  Indeed,  it  is  not  his  business  to  know 
the  materia  medica ;  that  is  not  important  to  his 
specialty ;  but  he  must  know  the  consummate  flower 
of  all  philosophy  relating  to  biological  investigation. 
Then  there  is  the  whole  range  of  psychological  study 
now  connecting  itself  closely  with  physiology.  There 
is  no  blazing  question  in  physiology  or  in  biology 
that  does  not  cast  light  into  the  theological  do- 
main. Political  economy  and  social  science  are  also 
to  be  kept  in  view ;  for  how  can  we  discuss  mar- 
riage and  communism  and  democracy,  or  any  of 
the  large  modern  themes  connected  with  free  insti- 
tutions, without  knowing  the  best  political  thought 
of  the  world?  Professor  Hitchcock  at  New  York 
lately  told  his  classes  that,  "  of  all  collateral  studies, 
,'not  one  just  now  is  of  more  immediate  importance 
!  to  theological  students  than  political  economy.  The 
old  Hebrew  prophets,  leaders  of  public  opinion  in 
their  day  and  nation,  were  more  than  political  econo- 


MRS.   BROWNING'S  CRY   OF  THE  CHILDREN.      95 

mists :  they  were  statesmen."  QjSociaUsm,  p.  52.)  Were 
they  alive  to-day,  they  would  discuss  socialism,  and 
know  how  to  wield  the  newly  forged  thunderbolts 
of  biology  and  psychology,  as  well  as  of  political 
science. 

Such  being  the  field  this  professorship  has  the 
superb  courage  to  enter,  its  founding  means  that 
mossy,  mediaeval,  cowardly  Andover  is  not  afraid  of 
investigation.  [Applause.]  Religious  science  pro- 
poses to  look  north,  south,  east,  and  west,  and  never 
to  be  wall-eyed.  Do  sceptics  and  rationalists  propose 
to  do  the  same  thing?  American  religious  scholar- 
ship is  not  afraid  of  investigation.  It  founds  lec- 
tureships and  professorships  to  meet  you  half  way. 
But  what  do  you  found  ?  Where  are  your  colleges  ? 
Where  are  your  lectureships  ?  Where  are  your  great 
endowments?  Where  are  your  libraries?  Where 
are  your  books,  I  will  not  say  one  thousand,  but 
even  one  hundred  years  old  ?  I  put  that  question 
to  the  four  winds,  and  obtain  no  answer.  [Ap- 
plause.] We  meet  you  more  than  half  way,  and  on 
heights  commanding  your  camps  are  planting  stern 
lines  of  artillery.  I  do  not  see  the  heights  you  are 
likely  to  occupy  fifty  years  hence.  I  do  not  see  how 
the  present  defences  of  materialistic  infidelity  can 
survive  in  a  circle  of  modern  artillery-fire,  that  is  in 
an  environment  of  public,  clear  discussion,  which 
prints  itself,  and  enters  the  open  fateful  contests  of 
authorship.  I  do  not  see  that  you  are  likely  to  hold 
your  camps.  I  see  rather  that  every  intrenchment 
of  materialism  is  likely  to  be  riddled  through  and 


96  LABOR. 

through  with  the  heaviest  artillery  of  intellectual 
discussion  within  an  hundred  years. 

Heaven  forbid  that  I  should  under-rate  the  train- 
ing of  specialists!  Every  one  respects  the  special- 
ist ;  but  it  is  easy  to  forget  how  narrow  a  man's 
sympathies  may  become  by  exclusive  devotion  to 
any  one  branch  of  merely  physical  science.  Even 
the  theologian,  vast  as  his  field  is,  may  be  guilty  of 
great  narrowness  of  thought  if  he  does  not  widen 
himself  through  contact  with  spheres  of  investiga- 
tion outside  his  own.  Take  Huxley  and  Tyndall, 
neither  of  whom  had  a  miiversity  education.  They 
are  great  observers,  probably  no  men  greater ;  but 
from  lack  of  a  fit,  large,  roundabout  university  train- 
ing, their  sympathies  with  philosophical  and  ethical 
themes,  in  spite  of  their  German  studies,  are  not 
wide  nor  deep.  If  you  measure  them  on  the  side  of 
some  of  the  most  important  philosophical  topics,  it 
will  be  found  that  their  training  is  painfully  incom- 
plete. TyndalFs  own  account  of  his  education 
(^Nineteenth  Century^  latest  number)  shows  that  from 
the  very  first  his  mind  has  been  in  a  trance  on  the 
topics  of  physical  science,  concerning  which  he  has 
made  discoveries,  —  the  molecular  constitution  of 
gases,  heat  as  molecular  motion,  sound  as  molecular 
motion.  IJut  it  is  only  natural  that  his  views  in 
pliilos<)])hy  should  be  unsatisfactory  to  experts  in 
tliat  department,  and  that  he  should  see  almost  noth- 
ing except  the  materialistic  side,  which,  as  Lotze  says, 
is  the  Ijorse  and  not  the  rider. 

We  need  men  trained,  like  Lotze,  in  both  philoso- 


MRS.   BEOWNING'S   CEY  OF  THE   CHILDREN.      97 

phy  and  physical  science,  and  taking  a  university 
degree  in  each  department,  if  we  are  to  meet  the 
demands  of  modern  discussion. 

Andover  has  founded  several  new  institutions ; 
but  no  enterprise  suggested  in  that  town  deserves 
more  praise  than  the  professorship  of  the  relations 
of  Christianity  to  science.  Under  the  elms  on  the 
hill  in  Andover  is  a  study  in  which  a  prayer-meet- 
ing was  once  held  weekly  to  devise  ways  and  means 
of  doing  good.  Among  its  attendants  were  Stuart 
and  Woods  and  Porter  and  Newman  and  Adams  and 
Edwards.  There  originated  the  first  religious  news- 
paper. There  began  its  existence  an  American  Tract 
Society,  which  sifts  its  printed  counsels  now  like  the 
dew  over  a  hemisphere.  There,  in  imitation  of  a 
Scottish  custom,  was  instituted  the  American  mis- 
sionary monthly  concert  of  prayer,  in  response  to  the 
wants  of  an  American  Missionary  Society,  also  origi- 
nating in  Andover,  and  whose  operations  now  cover 
a  domain  larger  than  the  Roman  Empire.  There 
had  its  birth  the  American  Education  Society,  which 
to-day  rings  its  college-bells  all  the  way  from  Niag- 
ara to  the  Yosemite.  There  was  commenced  the. 
American  Temperance  Society,  which  has  before  it, 
in  our  crowded  great  cities,  a  work  of  which  even 
wakeful  eyes  do  not  yet  see  more  than  a  glimpse  of 
the  importance.  {Half  Century  Andover  Memorial^ 
The  munificence  of  one  woman  has  founded  the 
Andover  professorship  of  Christianity  and  science. 
Through  its  usefulness  her  days  will  be  long  in  the 
land.     When  serious  men,  looking  into  the  future, 


98  LABOE. 

place  thousands  of  dollars  at  stake  in  the  founding 
of  a  professorship  like  this  new  one,  the  pioneer 
work  of  the  discussion  of  the  relations  of  religion 
to  science  has  passed  beyond  the  stage  at  which  it 
can  be  injured  by  irresponsible,  anonymous  sneers. 
[Applause.] 

THE  LECTUKE. 

Mrs.  Browning,  Shakspeare's  daughter,  summa- 
rized fifty  years  of  discussion  in  Great  Britain  by 
these  most  moving  words:  — 

**  The  young  lambs  are  bleating  in  the  meadows, 

The  young  birds  are  chirping  in  their  nest ; 
The  young  fawns  are  playing  with  the  shadows, 

The  young  flowers  are  blowing  toward  the  west. 
But  the  young,  young  children,  O  my  brothers  I 

They  are  weeping  bitterly  ; 
They  are  weeping  in  the  playtime  of  the  others, 

In  the  country  of  the  free. 

Go  out,  children,  from  the  mine  and  from  the  city ; 

Sing  out,  children,  as  the  little  thrushes  do.    * 
Pluck  your  handfuls  of  the  meadow-cowslips  pretty  ; 

Laugh  aloud  to  feel  your  fingers  let  them  through  I 
But  they  answer,  •  Are  your  cowslips  of  the  meadows 

Like  our  weeds  anear  the  mine  ? 
Leave  us  quiet,  in  the  dark  of  tlie  coal  shadows, 

From  your  pleasures  fair  and  fine.' 

'  For  oh ! '  say  the  children,  *  we  are  weaiy, 
And  we  cannot  run  or  leap  ; 
If  we  cared  for  any  meadows,  it  were  merely 
To  drop  down  in  them,  and  sleep. 


MES.  BROWNING'S   CRY  OF  THE   CHILDEEN.      99 

Our  knees  tremble  sorely  in  the  stooping, 

We  fall  iipon  our  faces  trying  to  go ; 
And,  underneath  our  heavy  eyelids  drooping, 

The  reddest  flower  would  look  as  pale  as  snow. 

For  all  day  we  bear  our  burden  tiring 

Through  the  coal-dai-k  underground ; 
Or  all  day  we  drive  the  wheels  of  iron 

In  the  factories,  round  and  round.'" 

If  this  is  sentiment,  surely  it  is  good  political 
economy  as  well,  and  that  for  both  Britons  and 
Americans. 

Sir  Robert  Peel,  himself  a  master-manufacturer, 
said  in  1816  to  the  British  Parliament,  that  unless 
the  tendency  of  congregated  labor  under  the  factory 
system  in  large  towns,  to  give  rise  to  perils  and 
abuses,  could  be  corrected  by  decisive  legislation,  the 
great  mechanical  inventions,  which  were  the  glory 
of  the  age,  would  be  a  curse  rather  than  a  blessing 
to  society.  (Hansard's  Parliamentary  Debates^  vols. 
xxxi.,  xxxiii..  Sir  Robert  Peel's  Speech  on  Motion 
for  a  Committee,  April  3,  1816.) 

1.  Congregated  labor  and  a  large  floating  popula- 
tion are  historically  known  as  having  always  hereto- 
fore given  rise,  in  large  towns,  to  grave  moral  and 
industrial  perils  and  abuses. 

2.  The  new  system  of  both  textile  and  non-textile 
manufactures  necessitates  congregated  labor;  and 
the  annual  fluctuations  of  the  activity  of  several 
trades  give  rise,  in  many  large  towns,  to  large  float- 
ing populations. 

It  is  of  high  interest  to  notice  that  almost  pre- 


100  LABOB. 

cisely  one  hundred  years  ago,  the  cotton-factory  sys- 
tem, on  account  of  new  mechanical  inventions,  was 
passing  through  a  great  transition  exceedingly  simi- 
lar to  that  which  the  shoe-factory  system  has  lately 
passed  through  from  the  same  cause.  In  1771  Sir 
Richard  Arkwright  perfected  that  marvellous  com- 
bination of  mechanical  adjustments  known  as  the 
spinning-frame.  Hargreaves's  great  invention  of  the 
spinning-jenny  took  place  in  1765.  Crompton's  cele- 
brated combination  in  the  mule-jenny,  of  the  two 
preceding  machines,  followed  in  1787.  In  strict 
analogy  with  what  is  now  passing  before  our  eyes  in 
the  history  of  a  great  sister  industry,  the  invention 
of  new  machinery  in  the  cotton-manufacture  revolu- 
tionized its  processes ;  and  the  invention  of  one  im- 
portant machine  necessitated  the  invention  of  others. 
But  the  steam-engine  had  not  yet  appeared.  A 
factory  system  therefore  sprung  up  in  connection 
with  vast  establishments  located  on  streams.  Of 
necessity,  the  sites  chosen  were,  in  a  majority  of  in- 
stances, at  a  distance  from  pre-existing  towns,  and  in 
thinly-populated  districts.  In  order  to  secure  perma- 
nent Labor,  a  system  of  apprenticeship  was  adopted, 
by  which  oi)eratives  were  bound  to  work  for  a  defi- 
nite period.  The  consequences  of  congregated  labor 
under  no  regulation  except  the  unrestrained  com- 
petition of  manufacturers  began  to  appear.  Hardly 
more  frightful  abuses  have  sprung  up  under  the  fac- 
tory system  in  large  towns  than  sprung  up  in  this 
first  factory  system  outside  of  large  towns.  It  is  vast- 
ly important  that  you  should  fix  your  eyes  upon  the 


MES.   BROWNING'S   CRY  OF   THE  CHILDREN.   101 

historical  fact  that  the  evils  I  am  discussing  are  not 
exclusively  incident  to  residence  in  cities.     A  whole 
generation  of  boys  and  girls  and  youths  and  men  and 
women  of  all  ages,  says  one  of  the  most  considerate 
of  historians,  "  were  growing  up  under  conditions  of 
physical   degeneracy,    of  mental   ignorance,  and   of 
moral  corruption."     The  very  title  of  the   bill  by- 
which   Sir  Robert  Peel  began,  in   1802,  the   great! 
series  of  the  English  Parliamentary  Acts  in  promo- 
tion of  factory  reform,  was :  "  For  the  preservation  \ 
of  the  health  and  morals  of  apprentices  and  others  1 
employed  in  the  cotton  and  other  mills,  and  in  cotton  ' 
and  other  factories."    The  health  and  morals!    Upon 
these  points  all  the  vast  mass  of  English   factory 
legislation  turns  to  the  present  moment.     It  is  sig- 
nificant to  notice  that  when  congregated  labor  under 
the  factory  system  was  tried  for  half  a  century  in 
England  at  a  distance  from  large  towns,  it  exhibited, 
taken  by  itself*  and  aside  from  any  now  outgrown 
evils  of  the  plan  of  apprenticeship,  a  tendency  to 
perils  and  abuses  such  as  to  call  for  the  most  deci- 
sive parliamentary  interference. 

The  new  star  of  the  steam-engine  blazed  across 
the  mechaidcal  sky ;  took  a  fixed  place  in  it ;  and  at 
once  there  was  a  new  grouping  of  constellations. 
The  vast  manufacturing  establishments  which  ex- 
isted at  a  distance  from  towns  were  transferred  to 
crowded  populations.  Between  1802  and  1815,  the 
factory  system  was  transformed  into  its  present' 
shape.  It  was  the  birth  of  the  inventions  of  Har- 
greaves  and  Arkwright  and  Crompton  and  Watt.     It 


102  LABOE. 

was  a  system  wholly  new  in  the  world.  Immediate- 
ly a  tendency  to  perils,  and  abuses  appeared,  which 
called  for  vigorous  parliamentary  repression.  Eng- 
lish Parliaments  have  not  been  remarkable  for  unneces- 
sary interference  with  trade,  nor  for  sentimental  legis- 
lation. The  larger  part  of  the  manufacturing  wealth 
of  the  kingdom  was  thrown  into  the  scale  against 
factory  reform.  But  the  cause  of  that  reform  has 
steadily  advanced,  because  Parliament  has  been 
forced,  by  the  terrible  revelations  of  its  own  commis- 
sions of  factory  inquiry,  again  and  again  to  interfere. 
The  moral  and  industrial  perils  of  congregated  labor 
under  the  factory  system  in  large  towns !  It  was 
thought  that  the  tendency  of  the  factory  system  to 
these  perils  was  corrected  by  the  great  Factory  Act 
of  1833.  Eleven  years  passed.  The  Factory  Reg- 
ulation Act  of  1844  was  found  necessary.  Two 
years  ensued.  Interference,  always  unwelcome  to 
Parliament,  and  ahvaj^s  against  sonfe  of  the  deepest 
traditions  of  English  law,  was  found  needful  in  spite 
of  previous  interference.  In  1847  the  celebrated 
Ten  Hour  Act  was  passed.  Experience  continues  to 
teach.  In  1873  the  Children's  Labor  Act  is  found 
indispensable.  Against  every  one  of  these  great 
measures,  the  larger  part  of  the  leading  manufactu- 
rers threw  their  heaviest  influence.  I  recite  before 
this  assembly  the  list  of  the  great  Acts  of  factory 
reform  wrung  from  Parliament,  in  Great  Britain,  to 
prove  the  inherent  tendencies  of  congregated  labor 
under  the  factory  system,  in  large  towns,  to  moral 
and  industrial  perils  and  abuses.     A  board  of  factory 


MRS.   BROWNING'S   CRY   OF   THE   CHILDREN.        103 

inspectors,  with  almost  regal  powers,  sits  to-day  in 
London ;  and  subordinate  inspectors  are  located  in 
various  districts,  making  reports  to  the  central  office 
weekly.  (Von  Plener,  English  Factory  Legisla- 
tion^ with  Introduction  by  Mr.  Mundella :  London, 
1873.) 

It  is  a  matter  of  public  notoriety,  that  within  the 
last  ten  years  the  methods  of  the  shoe-manufactures 
have  been  revolutionized  by  the  invention  of  the 
McKay  sewing-machine.  The  invention  of  the  spin- 
ning-jenny and  of  the  power-loom  did  no  more  to 
revolutionize  the  cotton-manufacture,  the  invention 
of  the  steam-engine  no  more  to  change  the  methods 
of  inland  and  maritime  conveyance,  than  the  appli- 
cation of  the  sewing-machine  to  the  shoe-trade  has 
done  to  revolutionize  the  processes  of  that  branch  of 
industry.  The  change  has  been  as  remarkable  for 
rapidity  as  for  extent.  It  was  hastened  by  the  great 
exigencies  of  our  civil  war.  The  celebrated  ma- 
chine which  is  likely  to  be  remembered  in  history 
side  by  side  with  the  spinning-jenny  and  the  power- 
loom,  was  invented  and  patented  by  Lyman  R.  Blake 
of  South  Abington,  in  this  Commonwealth,  as  late 
as  the  year  1858.  QShoe  and  Leather  Record^  Boston, 
Sept.  26,  1870.)  When  the  civil  struggle  began,  it 
was  seen  that  machinery  must  do  the  work  of  the 
multitudes  of  mechanics  of  the  North,  who  had  left 
their  places,  and  were  fighting  the  battles  of  the  war. 
The  original  patent  was  sold  to  Mr.  Gordon  McKay 
and  Mr.  J.  G.  Bates  of  Boston,  for  ten  thousand  dol- 
lars.    It  was  somewhat  improved  by  them.     Not  far 


104  LABOE. 

from  the  second  year  of  the  war,  it  began  to  be 
applied  to  the  shoe-manufactures  in  establishments 
in  this  city.  Invention  has  followed  invention.  The 
supply  of  the  wants  of  the  new  system  of  factories 
has  tasked  the  skill  of  the  best  experts  in  machine- 
ry in  New  England.  The  McKay  sewing-machine, 
the  skiving-machine,  the  pegging-machine,  the  sole- 
moulding  machine,  the  cable-wire  machine,  the  self- 
feeding  eyelet-machine,  are  but  a  fraction  of  the 
recent  inventions  not  only  patented,  but  in  use. 
Any  list  of  machines  correct  for  to-day  is  likely  to 
be  incorrect,  because  outgrown,  to-morrow.  Rapid 
as  the  supply  of  the  new  machinery  has  been,  the 
demand  for  it  has  exceeded,  and  yet  exceeds,  the 
supply. 

Three  large  results  have  followed  this  invention  of 
new  machinery.  First,  the  small  shop  system  has 
been  abandoned,  and  the  large  factory  system  has 
been  adopted.  Secondly,  a  great  subdivision  of  labor 
has  taken  place.  Thirdly,  the  trade  is  much  more 
subject  to  lulls,  or  inactive  seasons,  than  it  was 
before  the  invention  of  the  new  machinery.  Occur- 
ring in  the  largest  trade  of  the  United  States,  these 
changes  are  events  of  a  high  order  of  public  impor- 
tance. 

The  transition  from  the  old  system  to  the  new 
is  complete  and  final.  All  Eastern  Massachusetts  is 
sprinkled  thick  with  the  small  shoe-shops,  buildings 
twelve  or  twenty  feet  square,  in  each  of  whicli  ten 
or  fifteen  men  were  usually  employed  on  the  heavier 
work  of  the  trade ;  the  females,  in  their  own  rooms 


MES.   BROWNING'S   CRY  OF  THE  CHILDEEN.       105 

at  home,  doing  the  lighter  work.  These  rooms  have 
been  vacated,  never  to  be  filled  again.  For  a  hun- 
dred years  they  have  been  almost  as  characteristic  of 
a  large  part  of  the  towns  of  Eastern  Massachusetts 
as  the  schoolhouses  or  the  churches.  The  large 
factories,  which  are  rising  to  fill  their  places,  are 
destined  to  become  larger  and  larger.  There  is  no 
longer  any  artisan  in  this  trade  who  makes  a  whole 
shoe.  Subdivision  of  labor  is  sometimes  carried  so 
far  that  a  single  article  passes  through  the  hands  of 
fifty  workmen,  each  of  whom  is  trained  only  to  make 
a  part.  As  a  rule,  the  old  shoemakers  were  largely 
independent  in  the  management  of  their  business, 
each  family  attending  to  its  own  for  itself.  But  the 
large  factories  have  introduced  an  operative  class 
and  an  employing  class.  In  the  old  system,  work 
was  commonly  steady  from  year's  end  to  year's  end, 
or  affected  only  by  the  larger  fluctuations  of  general 
commerce.  But  now  there  are  two  periods  in  each 
year  in  the  trade,  in  any  large  city,  when  hundreds 
of  operatives  are  dropped  from  employment.  So  far 
apart  at  so  many  points  are  the  old  system  and  the 
new,  that  it  is  of  little  service  to  reason  from  the 
experience  of  the  trade  under  the  former  system,  to 
the  experience  it  is  to  expect  under  the  new.  It 
matters  little  if  a  man  have  passed  a  lifetime  under 
the  old  system.  He  must  judge  the  new  system  by 
the  experiences  developed  under  it,  and  not  by  the 
old. 

It  is  of  very  great  importance,  while  these  changes 
are  passing,  to  call  attention  in  time  to  the  high  duty 


106  LABOR. 

of  setting  right  precedents  in  the  new  system.  Let 
the  first  twenty  years  of  the  new  order  of  things,  or 
the  first  ten,  be  managed  carelessly,  and  the  needle 
will  be  threaded  wrong  for  fifty  years,  and  will  not 
be  threaded  wholly  aright  for  a  hundred.  A  respon- 
sibility of  an  extent  and  weight  not  easily  over-esti- 
mated rests  upon  the  manufacturing  and  operative 
classes  who  are  now  organizing  a  completely  new 
factory  system  for  the  largest  trade  of  the  nation. 
This  voluminous  docvunent  which  I  hold  in  my 
hand  is  an  ofiicial  copy  of  the  bill  now  before  Parlia- 
ment summarizing  or  making  laws  relating  to  British 
factories  and  workshops,  and  sure  to  pass.  It  has 
already  gone  through  both  houses,  and  the  provisions 
of  it  are  sterner  than  those  of  Massachusetts  legisla- 
tion to-day.  They  are  in  advance  of  the  best  laws 
passed  in  America  for  the  prevention  of  industrial 
and  moral  j^erils  in  congregated  laboring  populations 
in  large  towns.  Its  summary  of  fifty  years  of  severe 
industrial  experience  is  precisely  that  given  in  Mrs. 
lirowning's  words,  —  the  child  is  the  point  on  which 
these  perils  and  abuses  fasten  themselves  first  of  all. 
As  Sir  Robert  Peel  began  with  legislation  to  protect 
children,  young  persons,  and  women,  so  this  bill 'is 
concerned,  in  more  than  two-thirds  of  its  extent,  with 
the  protection  of  the  riglits  of  minors  and  females. 
The  cry  of  the  children,  tlierefore,  is  uttered  by  the 
gruff  voice  of  the  English  Parliament,  as  well  as  by 
the  searching  tenderness  of  the  tones  of  tliis  greatest 
of  female  poets.  It  is  the  combination  of  these  two 
contrasted  yet  interbleuding  voices  of  British  litera- 


MRS.   BEOWNING'S   CEY  OF  THE  CHILDREN".       107 

ture   and   British   legislation   that   ought   to    arrest 
American  attention. 

If  I  must  summarize  swiftly  the  propositions  on 
which  I  dare  put  foot,  face  to  face  with  the  historical 
experience  I  have  now  sketched,  I  shall  not  lead  you 
over  English  ground  exclusively;  for  my  feeling  is 
that  English  factory  legislation  cannot  be  transferred 
as  a  mass  to  New  England.  We  have  a  peculiar 
political  and  social  life  here,  and  experience  in  Amer- 
ica is  needed  to  guide  American  legislation.  Never- 
theless we  can  well  cast  glances  upon  foreign  legis- 
lation, in  Germany,  in  France,  in  Switzerland,  in 
Great  Britain,  and  especially  upon  this  last  series  of 
summarized  enactments,  and  examine  what  has  taken 
place  abroad  while  we  are  shrewd  enough  to  study 
our  own  peculiar  circumstances.  Nail,  therefore,  to 
the  door,  as  Luther  did  his  theses  to  a  certain  church, 
these  propositions.  I  purpose  to  defend  them,  but 
I  ask  no  one  to  accept  my  positions :  — 

1.  Much  modern  machinery  can  be  managed  by 
women  and  children  as  remuneratively  as  by  men. 

2.  When  a  child,  or  young  person,  or  woman,  can 
be  hired  for  fifty  or  eighty  cents  a  day,  and  mature 
labor  costs  twice  or  thrice  that  sum,  the  temptation 
to  manufacturers  is  great  to  hire  the  cheapest  effec- 
tive labor. 

It  is  said  by  many  that  we  ought  not  to  interfere 
with  the  law  of  supply  and  demand ;  but  why  have 
I  summarized  this  English  legislation  ?  In  order  to 
show  you  that  practically  England  has  interfered  for 
half  a  century. 


108  LABOR. 

3.  When,  as  in  Massachuse|;ts,  families  of  opera- 
tives depend  upon  children's  earnings  for  from  one- 
fifth  to  one-sixth  of  the  family  income,  the  tempta- 
tion to  parents  is  great  to  force  their  children  into 
early  labor  in  the  mills. 

4.  Between  the  greed  of  employers  and  the  neces- 
sities of  parents,  the  factory-child  is  thus  deprived  of 
a  proper  education. 

5.  The  wages  of  mature  labor  are  reduced  by  com- 
petition with  child-labor. 

My  purpose  is  to  fasten  your  attention  upon  the 
facts  logically  connected,  as  a  chain  running  through 
this  whole  vexed  topic  of  capital  and  labor.  This 
chain,  by  the  by,  is  welded  by  no  human  hand ;  and, 
according  to  the  use  we  make  of  its  links,  it  is  either 
the  chain  that  is  to  choke  America  severely,  or  the 
one  that  will  bind  back  into  impotence  some  of  the 
worst  industrial  and  political  evils  that  assaU  her. 

6.  An  ignorant  operative  class  is  inevitably  pro- 
duced by  the  neglect  of  early  education  of  factory- 
children,  through  the  greed  of  employers  and  the 
carelessness  of  parents. 

7.  An  ignorant  is  likely  to  be  a  more  or  less  help- 
less and  suffering  class. 

8.  An  ignorant,  helpless,  and  suffering  class  natu- 
rally becomes  a  politically  and  socially  discontented, 
explosive,  and  criminal  cLoss. 

9.  The  law  of  self-preservation  therefore  justifies 
State  interference  with  the  relations  of  caj)ital  and 
labor  so  far  as  the  regulation  of  the  work  and  educa- 
tion of  children  and  young  persons  is  concerned. 


MES.   BROWNING'S   CRY  OF  THE  CHILDREN.       109 

10.  Fifty  years  of  factory  legislation  in  Great 
Britain,  the  United  States,  Germany,  and  most  other 
civilized  states,  have  established  the  principle  of  gov- 
ernmental interference  in  protection  of  the  interests 
of  children,  young  persons,  and  women  in  the  trades, 
though  not  of  men. 

Here  is  the  central  proposition  asserting  the  neces- 
sity of  governmental  interference,  not  in  the  social- 
istic sense,  but  in  the  republican,  democratic  sense ; 
the  principle  of  governmental  interference  in  protec- 
tion of  the  rights  of  children,  young  persons,  and 
women,  though  not  of  the  rights  of  mature  labor, 
which  is  allowed  to  be  boxed  about  under  the  law's 
of  supply  and  demand. 

11.  No  child  under  ten  years  of  age  should  be 
employed  in  any  factory.     [Applause.] 

The  German  Social  Science  Association  insists 
upon  it  that  no  married  woman  should  be  employed 
in  a  factory.     [Applause.] 

12.  No  child  under  fifteen  should  be  so  employed 
unless  able  to  show  a  certificate  of  an  adequate 
amount  of  school  instruction,  to  be  required  by  law 
and  also  a  surgical  certificate  of  physical  fitness  for 
his  labor.     [Applause.] 

13.  Compulsory  education  in  the  common  schools 
is  in  America  a  better  measure  than  the  English  half- 
time  schools  for  factory-children;  for  the  half-time 
schools  foster  a  class  distinction  foreign  to  the  spirit 
of  American  institutions,  and  are  not  effective  enough 
to  train  American  voters  adequately. 

15.  But,  if  the  State  assumes  the  care  of  the  edu- 


110  LABOR. 

cation  of  the  child  until  the  fifteenth  or  sixteenth 
year,  overseers  of  the  poor  should  be  instructed  to 
aid  families  who  suffer  from  the  lack  of  the  earnings 
of  children  whom  the  government  requires  to  be  in 
school. 

15.  The  system  of  apprenticeship  has  departed 
from  modern  trades,  and  at  present  nothing  exists  in 
its  place. 

16.  If  the  State  takes  the  child  from  the  parent 
until  its  fifteenth  or  sixteenth  year,  the  government 
should  give  the  child  back  so  instructed  as  to  be  able 
to  earn  something.     [Applause.] 

17.  Developing-schools  and  .school-shops  might, 
therefore,  be  well  made  to  follow  for  a  year  or  two 
the  common  school  instruction ;  and  such  schools 
should  be  assisted  by  the  State,  and  would  consti- 
tute the  crowning  protection  of  children's  rights  in 
the  trades.     [Applause.] 

Such  are  the  seventeen  propositions  which  I  would 
emphasize,  but  of  which  I  can  give  almost  no  expan- 
sion ;  and  yet  it  is  necessary  to  attempt  a  certain 
amount  of  illustration  of  these  positions,  and  there- 
fore 1  ask  you  to  let  me  teach  by  object-lessons.  I 
am  not  speaking  to  teachers  or  preachers  or  politi- 
cians :  I  wish  any  communications  representing  this 
platform  as  a  teacher  of  teachers  might  be  excluded 
from  the  public  press.  I  never  made,  and  shall  never 
make,  any  such  pretensions.  I  am  far  from  attempt- 
ing to  instruct  the  leaders  of  the  Massachusetts 
Bureau,  or  any  minister  here  from  a  factory  town.  I 
am  not  an  .igitator  by  profession.     I  am  here  simply 


MRS.   BEOWNIKG'S   CRY  OF  THE  CHILDREN.       Ill 

and  solely  as  a  flying  scout  making  a  report,  and  I 
have  had  a  little  experience  in  a  manufacturing  pop- 
ulation. It  may  be  known  to  some  here  that  I  once 
had  the  honor  or  dishonor  of  raising  a  local  breeze 
by  a  defence  of  the  rights  of  working-men's  children. 
[Applause.]  I  will  not  dwell  on  that  point,  however, 
for  I  believe  the  enemy  was  whipped,  horse,  foot, 
and  dragoons.  [Applause.]  The  working-men  peti- 
tioned, two  or  three  hundred  strong,  for  a  continuance 
of  the  discussion  of  the  rights  of  their  children ;  and 
although  I  am  not  a  partisan  for  labor,  or  for  capital, 
I  must  say  that  you  never  can  convince  working-men 
that  he  is  their  enemy  who  is  a  friend  of  their  chil- 
dren.    [Applause.] 

Here  is  a  little  child  at  Fall  River.  I  am  reciting 
a  fact  out  of  the  reports  of  your  Massachusetts 
Bureau.  The  young  creature  stands  at  the  edge  of 
swiftly  moving  water  to  wash  a  broom,  one  of  the 
heavy  sort,  and  the  racing  flood  bears  the  instrument 
away  from  her ;  but  she,  frightened  from  fear  of  pun- 
ishment, clings  to  the  handle,  and  is  drawn  in  and 
drowned,  for  she  is  not  large  enough  to  pull  out  the 
broom  from  the  arrowy  current. 

You  say  this  is  exaggeration ;  but  I  went  this 
morning  to  the  best  specialist  in  Boston  on  the  con- 
dition of  labor,  and  I  think  the  best  in  the  United 
States,  and  put  the  question,  "  How  many  children  are 
growing  up  in  Massachusetts  without  any  instruction 
in  schools,  public  or  private  ?  "  — "  Why,"  said  he, 
"  three  years  ago  I  estimated  that  there  were  twenty- 
five  thousand  (report  of  Massachusetts  Labor  Bureau 


112  LABOB. 

for  1875,  p.  5),  but  to-day  I  think  there  are  from 
fifteen  to  twenty  thousand  growing  up  without  any 
instruction  worth  mentioning,  in  either  public  or  pri- 
vate schools."  Where  are  they?  They  are  in  the 
factories,  where  this  little  child  was,  and  at  work. 
They  are  crowded  out  of  the  schools  and  into  the 
mills,  and  they  are  laboring  there  day  by  day ;  and 
where  are  the  men  whose  duty  it  is  to  execute  the 
school-laws  of  1876  ?  Where  are  the  men  who  are 
charged  in  Massachusetts  with  carrying  out  our  pres- 
ent very  excellent  system  of  legislation  against  tru- 
ancy? We  have  heard,  for  ten  years,  more  or  less 
discussion  of  the  dangers  of  allowing  an  ignorant 
class  to  grow  up  in  manufacturing  cities;  but  public 
sentiment  has  not  reached  such  a  state  that  you  can 
gather  out  of  the  Massachusetts  sky  any  very  hot 
thunderbolts  —  you  can  gather  only  thin  ones,  sheet- 
lightning  merely — for  these  neglectful  parents  and 
still  more  neglectful  and  criminal  public  officers  of 
the  law.     [Applause.] 

What  do  I  want?  The  legislation  of  England, 
which  I  hold  in  my  hand,  provides  an  efficient  board 
of  factory-inspectors;  and  you  have  nothing  of  the 
sort  in  this  Commonwealth.  Several  years  your 
Bureau  of  Statistics  of  Labor  has  been  urging  the 
appointment  of  factory-inspectors  in  Massachusetts, 
and  again  and  again  the  topic  has  been  laid  aside  in 
the  State  House.  If  my  feeble  voice,  assisted  by  your 
support,  can  raise  any  agitation  on  this  theme,  God 
grant  that  we  may  have  some  influence  to  secure  the 
execution  of  the  righteous  laws  of  Massachusetts  in 


MES.   BROWNING'S  CRY  OF  THE  CHILDREN.       113 

the  matter  of  compulsory  attendance  of  the  schoals ! 
[Applause.] 

If  I  were  a  socialist,  I  should  be  personally 
ashamed  to  ask  for  more  help  than  America,  when 
her  laws  are  executed,  now  gives  through  the  govern- 
ment to  the  average  citizen.  Here  I  am,  unable,  let 
us  suppose,  to  pay  more  than  a  poll-tax,  and  my  wife 
becomes  insane.  The  government  watches  over  her, 
puts  her  into  an  institution,  and  takes  care  of  her. 
Here  is  a  child  of  mine  that  I  cannot  educate.  The 
government  opens  a  school  for  him,  pays  his  tuition- 
bills,  provides  for  him  school-books,  if  necessary; 
and  warms  the  house  for  him.  Here  is  a  child  of 
mine  that  wishes  to  follow  a  certain  trade  requiring 
a  technical  education.  The  government  gives  assist- 
ance to  schools  peculiarly  adapted  to  his  wants.  I 
have  a  child  that  is  deaf  and  dumb.  Massachusetts 
adopts  him  into  her  family,  gives  him  a  good  room 
yonder  in  South  Boston,  attends  to  him  as  I  cannot. 
I  have  a  child  that  is  blind.  Massachusetts  puts  her 
hand  on  his  shoulder,  puts  her  hand  in  blessing  on 
his  head,  guides  him  to  her  philanthropic  institution 
for  those  who  are  sightless,  educates  him,  places  her 
best  talent  at  his  side,  and  improves  his  stunted  men- 
tal perceptions  until,  in  the  case  of  a  Laura  Bridg- 
man,  they  touch  the  Unseen  Holy  itself,  and  commune 
with  the  world  beyond  sight.  [Applause.]  You 
have  now  done  for  you,  discontented  socialists  and 
complaining  working-men,  as  much  as  you  can  bear  to 
have  done,  and  retain  the  proper  spirit  of  self-help. 
[Applause.]  All  this  is  what  capital  regularly  and 
Tsdllipc-lv  does  for  ld,bor. 


114  LABOR. 

In  spite  of  the  danger  of  undermining  the  spirit 
of  self-help,  I  would  have  the  laws  requiring  the 
attendance  of  all  children  at  the  common  schools 
rigorously  executed,  because  without  tliis  precaution 
experience  shows  that  an  ignorant  class  will  be 
formed  even  in  Massachusetts.  With  very  many  of 
our  foreign-born  operatives  there  is  no  proper  con- 
ception of  the  value  of  education  in  this  country. 

There  are  no  proper  conceptions,  I  think,  in  society 
at  large,  of  the  value  of  educating  the  uncleanest 
poor.  Why,  where  have  many  of  the  greatest  invent- 
ors come  from?  Who  was  Robert  Burns?  Who 
is  the  American  Edison  ?  Who  was  Ferguson  when 
he  lay  on  his  back,  and  stretched  a  thread  before  him, 
put  beads  upon  it,  and  marked  the  positions  of  the 
stars,  and  made  a  map  of  the  constellations  in  the 
peasant's  hut?  Who  was  that  rail-splitter  [ap- 
plause] who  was  assassinated  in  Washington  at  the 
end  of  a  civil  war,  and  over  whose  eloquence,  as  well 
as  over  whose  statesmanship,  every  zone  of  the  planet 
stood  hushed  in  wonder  ?  The  talent  that  lies  in  the 
lowest  population !  how  are  we  ever  to  know  hew 
great  it  is  unless  we  bring  Burns  out  from  under  the 
thatch,  and  Ferguson  up  from  his  peasant's  hut,  and 
our  Edison  into  proper  employment,  and  our  Lincoln 
from  his  hovel  up  and  up  until  he  finds  the  place  God 
made  for  liim  at  the  summit  of  political  power  in 
the  foremost  republic  of  modern  times  ?  [Applause.] 
Where  are  the  lax  executors  of  law,  and  the  fleecers 
and  tempters  of  the  poor,  who  keep  the  veil  of  vice 
or  ignorance  hung  over  the  eyes  of  the  lower  popu- 


MES.   BEOWNING'S   CRY  OF  THE  CHILDREN.       115 

lations?  A  man  very  rarely  finds  out  what  great 
things  are  in  him  until  he  drops  all  the  weights  that 
impede  his  race.  He  does  not  know  how  swift  he 
can  be  until  every  bad  habit  is  sloughed  oE.  Where 
are  the  men  who  execute  the  laws  against  intemper- 
ance ?  Shut  your  grog-shops,  open  your  schools,  and 
God  knows  what  flashing  jewels  you  may  yet  dig  out 
of  the  neglected  ores  at  the  very  bottom  of  the  un- 
wrought  mine  of  the  poorest  classes.     [Applause.] 

Am  I  venturing  too  much  in  saying  that  the 
English  half-time  schools,  effective  as  they  have  been, 
are  hardly  adapted  to  our  New  England  civilization  ? 
We  have  had  recommendations  of  these  schools  from 
the  early  officers  of  the  Massachusetts  bureau ;  but, 
in  representing  my  own  opinion  concerning  them,  I 
am  representing  also  that  of  the  present  officers  of 
the  same  bureau.  I  understand  these  officers  to 
affirm  that  the  half-time  schools  cultivate  a  class  feel- 
ing, and  give  the  factory  child  a  perception  from  the 
first,  that  the  order  to  which  he  belongs  is  divided 
sharply  from  the  upper  orders.  These  schools  do  not 
contain  that  inspiritment  which  comes  from  the 
friendships  always  formed  between  boys  of  all  grades 
of  society,  when  they  are  mingled  in  the  common 
school.  My  investigation  of  this  topic  of  factory 
Icfrislation  leads  me  to  reverence  the  ideas  of  our 
fathers  concerning  common  free  schools.  Any  attack 
on  that  system  is  sure  to  produce  socialistic  political 
mischief,  as  well  as  great  moral  peril,  in  the  United 
States.  We  may  easily  secure  the  execution  of  com- 
pulsory laws  concerning  the  attendance   of  factory 


116  LABOR. 

children  at  school.  Let  us  make  no  distinction 
among  citizens,  on  the  ground  of  occupation,  any 
more  than  on  that  of  color.  In  this  particular  we 
can  mould  our  legislation  in  America,  on  a  pattern 
better  than  the  models  of  the  Old  World.  [Ap- 
plause.] 

I  am  not  underrating  the  half-time  schools  of  Eng- 
land. They  have  been  tried  in  Massachusetts  to 
some  extent;  but  practical  experience  in  Grefit 
Britain  shows  that  they  are  a  clumsy  expedient,  and 
can  easily  be  abused ;  and,  after  all,  do  not  give  an 
education  sufficient  to  meet  the  demands  of  the 
American  voter  in  our  modern  political  arrangement 
in  America.  In  the  cotton  districts  of  England, 
where  a  half-tune  school-law  has  been  in  operation 
since  1833,  it  was  found  in  1866,  that  thirty-seven 
per  cent  of  the  children  were  unable  to  read. 

Massachusetts  at  this  hour  stands  in  a  position  to 
be  an  example,  if  she  executes  her  legislation  con- 
cerning the  instruction  of  children.  Technical  educa- 
tion in  art  lias  struck  root  here  at  last.  A  committee 
of  your  citizens,  appointed  by  the  American  Social 
Science  Association,  strongly  recommend  that  a  de- 
veloping-school  and  school-shops  sliould  be  estab- 
lislied  by  the  city  or  state,  or  an  endowed  corporation  ; 
and  that  the  gap  left  by  the  desuetude  of  the  system 
of  apprenticeship  should  thus  be  filled,  the  aptitudes 
of  pupils  ascertained,  and  trades  taught  them  in  out- 
line. The  worth  of  the  articles  produced  in  such 
schools  would  probably  pay  expenses  after  a  short 
time.     (See  a  report  by  S.  P.  Rugoles,  Wendell 


MRS.   BROWKTKG'S   CRY   OF  THE   CHILDREN.       117 

Phellips,  Edward  E.  Hale,  and  others,  read  at  the 
annual  meeting  of  the  American  Social  Science  Asso- 
ciation in  Boston,  Jan.  10,  1877.) 

Very  interesting  is  it  to  observe,  that,  as  the  older 
America  entered  this  continent  at  the  Massachusetts 
coast,  so  the  manufacturing  America  enters  at  the 
same  quarter.  Plymouth  Rock  was  the  foundation 
of  a  church ;  the  problem  of  our  industrial  future  is 
how  to  make  it,  without  any  hewing  of  its  savage 
outlines  of  justice,  the  foundation  of  the  factory. 
[Applause.]  Yes,  I  mean  all  this  implies.  Plymouth 
Rock,  or  in  other  words,  unhewn  justice,  is  to  be  the 
foundation  of  our  factory  legislation,  —  Plymouth 
Rock,  the  corner-stone  of  industrial  as  well  as  polit- 
ical institutions ;  Plymouth  Rock,  the  corner-stone 
not  only  of  the  Church  which  old  New  England  was, 
but  of  the  factory  which  the  new  New  England  is, 
and  will  be  more  and  more.     [Applause.] 

In  the  famous  English  Bill  which  I  hold  in  my 
hands,  a  child  is  defined  as  a  person  under  fourteen 
years  of  age ;  a  young  person,  as  one  between  four- 
teen and  eighteen ;  and  a  woman,  as  a  female  over 
eighteen.  Now,  no  child  in  Great  Britain,  according 
to  these  new  laws,  and  no  young  person  or  woman, 
can  be  employed  in  textile  factories  except  as  fol- 
lows :  — 

1.  Young  persons  and  women  work  from  six  A.m. 
to  six  P.M.,  or  seven  A.M.  to  seven  p.m.,  and  on  Sat- 
urdays from  six  A.M.  to  one  p.m.  Two  hours  a  day, 
on  five  days  of  the  week,  and  half  an  hour  Saturday, 
must  be  allowed  for  meals.     Continuous  employment, 


118  LABOR. 

without  a  meal-time  of  at  least  half  an  hour,  is  not 
to  exceed  four  hours  and  a  half. 

2.  Children  are  employed  for  half-time  only,  in 
morning  and  afternoon  sets,  on  alternate  days.  The 
work-day  is  the  same  as  for  women  and  young  per- 
sons. No  child  can  be  employed  on  two  successive 
days,  nor  on  the  same  day  in  two  successive  weeks. 

3.  The  employment  of  young  persons  at  home, 
where  the  work  is  the  same  as  that  done  in  the  fac- 
tory, but  no  machine-power  used,  is  also  regulated. 

4.  Employers  must  obtain  a  weekly  certificate  of 
school  attendance  for  every  child  in  their  employ- 
ment. 

5.  Medical  certificates  of  fitness  for  employment 
are  required  in  the  case  of  children  and  young  per- 
sons under  sixteen. 

6.  Dangerous  machinery  is  to  be  fenced,  and  chil-' 
dren  and  young  persons  are  not  to  be  employed  in 
cleaning  machinery  in  motion. 

7.  Strict  sanitary  regulations  preserve  the  cleanli- 
ness of  the  factories. 

8.  The  factory  law  of  Great  Britain  is  administered 
by  two  sets  of  officers,  appointed  by  the  Secretary  of 
State,  —  inspectors  charged  with  the  duty  of  examin- 
ing factories  and  workshops  at  all  seasonable  times, 
and  certifying  surgeons  to  grant  certificates  of  fit- 
ness under  the  act.  (^Encyclopcedia  Britannica,  ninth 
ed.,  vol.  viii.,  p.  845.  See  also  official  copy  of  the 
bill  to  consolidate  and  amend  the  law  relating  to  fac- 
tories and  workshops,  House  of  Commons,  April  9, 
1877.) 


MRS.   BROWNING'S   CRY  OF   THE   CHILDREN.       119 

What  I  want  for  the  protection  of  labor  in  factory 
towns  is  as  much  as  Great  Britain  has,  except  her 
undemocratic  half-time  schools. 

"  Still  all  day  the  iron  wheels  go  onward, 

Grinding  life  down  fi'om  its  mark; 
And  the  children's  souls,  which  God  is  calling  sunward, 

Spin  on  blindly  in  the  dark. 
How  long,  how  long,  O  cruel  nation, 

Will  you  stand  to  move  the  world  on  a  child's  heart,  — 
Stifle  down  with  mailed  heel  its  palpitation. 

And  tread  onward  to  your  throne  amid  the  mart? 
Our  blood  splashes  upward,  O  gold-heaper! 

And  your  purple  shows  your  path  ; 
But  the  child's  sob  in  the  silence  curses  deeper 

Than  the  strong  man  in  his  wrath." 

Mrs.  Browning  :  The  Cry  of  The  Children. 

[Applause.] 


V. 

'     SEX  IN  INDUSTRY. 

THE   ONE   HUNDRED   AND   FIFTEENTH   LECTURE   IN   THE 

BOSTON   MONDAY   LECTURESHIP,    DELIVERED   IN 

TREMONT   TEMPLE,   DEC.   2. 


Hast  thou  heard,  with  sound  ears,  the  awakening  of  a  Man- 
chester, on  Monday  morning,  at  half  past^five  by  the  clock;  the 
rushing  off  of  its  thousand  mills,  like  the  broom  of  an  Atlantic 
tide,  ten  thousand  times  ten  thousand  spools  and  spindles  all  set 
humming  there,  —  it  is  perhaps,  if  thou  knew  it  well,  sublime  as  a 
Niagara,  or  more  so.  Cotton-spinning  is  the  clothing  of  the  naked 
in  its  result;  the  triumph  of  man  over  matter  in  its  means.  Soot 
and  despair  are  not  the  essence  of  it ;  they  are  divisible  from  it,  — 
at  this  hour,  are  they  not  crying  fiercely  to  be  divided  ?  The  great 
Goethe,  looking  at  cotton  Switzerland,  declared  it,  I  am  told,  to  be 
of  all  things  that  he  had  seen  in  this  world  the  most  poetical. 
Whereat  friend  Kanzler  von  Miiller,  in  search  of  the  palpable  pfc- 
turesque,  could  not  but  stare  wide-eyed.  Nevertheless  our  World- 
Poet  knew  well  what  he  was  saying.  —  Cajilyl^. 

The  vital  matter  is  to  increase  the  purchasing  power  of  the  i>eo- 
ple.  —  BoNAMY  Price. 


V. 

SEX   IN  INDUSTRY. 

PEELUDE  ON  CURKENT   EVENTS. 

There  came  yesterday  from  Windsor  Castle  a 
message,  sent  by  what  Tennyson  calls 

"  Thunderless  lightnings  smiting  under  seas," 

to  the  fourth  daughter  of  Victoria  at  Montreal: 
"Delighted  at  reception.  Say  so.  The  Queen." 
Although  Canada  occupies  so  large  a  place  in  the 
minds  of  Britons,  that  the  Marquis  of  Lome  publicly 
affirms  that  Montreal  is  the  best-known  city  on  this 
continent,  —  Boston  is  here  !  —  I  undertake  to  affirm 
that  Americans  in  general  have  not  heard  of  any 
thing  happening  in  Canada  since  1867,  when  the 
union  of  the  provinces  was  formed.  We  are  as  ob- 
livious of  what  occurs  on  the  other  side  of  the  St. 
Lawrence  as  Englishmen  in  general  are  as  to  what 
happens  on  this  side  of  the  Atlantic.  Nevertheless 
Canada  at  this  moment  is  the  fifth  maritime  power 
in  the  world. 

The  mouth  of  the  St.  Lawrence  is  shut  fully  five 
months  of  the  year  by  ice.     Commercial  reasons,  it 

123 


124  LABOE. 

was  presumed  by  some,  would  lead  Canada  to  seek 
annexation  to  the  United  States  after  the  repeal  of 
the  reciprocity  treaty.  That  agreement  was  nego- 
tiated by  Lord  Elgin  in  1854,  and  abrogated  in  1866. 
This  city  of  Boston  had  a  trade  of  more  than  twenty- 
seven  million  dollars  annually,  affected  by  its  provis- 
ions. The  union  of  the  British-x\merican  provinces 
was  an  accomplished  fact  fifteen  months  after  the 
repeal  of  the  treaty.  Most  urgent  commercial  forces 
hurried  on  this  coalescence.  Canada  before  the  con- 
federation was  an  inland  province.  Its  chief  winter 
gates  to  the  ocean  were  New  York,  Boston,  and 
Portland.  Now  it  has  a  seaboard.  The  country  of 
Evangeline's  Acadie,  which  Longfellow  annexed  to 
American  hearthstones,  is  startled  by  the  thunder  of 
railway-passage . 

"  This  was  the  forest  primeval.     The  murmuring  pines  and 

the  hemlocks, 
Bearded  with  moss  and  in  garments  green,  indistinct  in  the 

twilight, 
Stood  like  Druids  of  old,  with  voices  sad  and  prophetic." 

At  a  public  expense  of  twenty  million  dollars,  the 
Intercolonial  Railway  has  been  undertaken,  to  secure 
free  communication  on  Canadian  soil  to  and  from  the 
inland  cities  and  Halifax  and  St.  John  on  the  Atlan- 
tic. Various  other  means  of  intercommimication 
have  been  improved,  so  that  the  shutting  of  the 
mouth  of  the  St.  Lawrence  in  the  winter  does  not 
prevent  the  access  of  Canada  to  the  ocean.  Tliat  is 
never  frozen.     To-day  Canada  is  a  competitor  witli 


SEX   IN   INDUSTRY.  125 

the  United  States  in  the  ports  of  the  West  Indies 
and  of  South  America;  and,  in  case  of  certain  ar- 
ticles, in  those  of  Great  Britain  herself.  It  is  quite 
worth  while  for  merchants  to  cast  an  eye  toward  the 
Dominion  of  Canada,  even  if  politicians  have  no  rea- 
son to  look  that  way.  The  repeal  of  the  reciprocity 
treaty  has  drawn  the  British  Provinces  closer  to- 
gether. The  interchange  of  traffic,  which  from  1820 
to  1866  was  largely  in  favor  of  the  United  States, 
underwent  so  great  an  alteration  from  1866  to  1873, 
as  to  show  a  balance  against  the  United  States,  and 
in  favor  of  Canada,  of  $51,875,000. 

Lord  Derby  said,  a  few  years  ago,  that  everybody 
knew  that  Canada  must  soon  become  an  independent 
nation.  He  has  changed  his  mind  since,  and  is  now 
a  representative  of  the  rising  tide  of  imperialism ; 
but  at  this  hour  not  a  shilling  of  British  public 
money  comes  to  Canada,  although  a  vice-regal  gov- 
ernment is  accepted  there  with  acclamations. 

As  members  of  one  political  family,  Upper  and 
Lower  Canada  have  led  an  uneasy  life  together.  A 
proposition,  first  made  in  1822,  for  the  political  union 
of  these  two  provinces,  bore  no  fruit  until  1841, 
when  the  union  of  Upper  and  Lower  Canada  was 
effected. 

On  the  fertile  banks  of  the  lower  St.  Lawrence 
there  is  a  French  population  living  in  a  state  of  pro- 
longed childhood  under  Romanism ;  a  happy  people, 
ignorant,  industrious,  social,  but  not  progressive,  and 
yet  capable,  when  held  together  by  the  ties  of  race, 
language,   and    religion,   and  exploited  by   Romish 


126  LABOR. 

ecclesiastical  and  civil  politicians,  of  exerting  impor- 
tant influence  in  politics.  Lord  Elgin  once  said  that 
it  would  be  easier  to  make  the  French  Canadians 
American  than  to  make  them  English.  Lower  Cana- 
da is  a  part  of  France  unreformed  by  the  Revolution 
of  1792.  The  Romish  Church  of  Louis  XIV.  yet 
collects  its  tithes  on  the  eastern  St.  Lawrence.  The 
Jesuit  is  active  there. 

Upper  Canada,  filled  cliiefly  by  British  emigrants, 
was  often  divided  between  the  political  opinions  of 
Britons.  There  the  English,  the  Scotch,  and  the 
Irish  were  not  infrequently  separated  by  old  party 
lines.  In  nearly  every  case  when  a  division  occurred 
among  the  English-speaking  populations  of  Canada, 
Lower  Canada  could  have  her  way.  The  revenue 
came  principally  from  Upper,  but  the  disposal  of  it 
was  often  determined  by  Lower,  Canada.  Therefore, 
in  the  former,  a  demand  arose  for  union  with  the 
other  English-speaking  provinces.  Nova  Scotia  and 
New  Brunswick.  During  our  American  war,  Upper 
and  Lower  Canada  both  felt  that  they  would  be 
stronger  against  attack  if  all  the  British  provinces 
were  united.  Thus  domestic  political  reasons,  as 
well  as  commercial  causes,  originated  the  great  act  of 
union  of  1867.  Imitating  the  United  States,  Ontario, 
Quebec,  Nova  Scotia,  and  New  Brunswick  became 
one  political  power,  with  independent  local  institu- 
tions. In  1870  young  Manitoba,  radiant  with  hope, 
stood  up  in  the  sunset,  and  was  married  to  the  Do- 
minion. In  1871  British  Columbia,  on  the  hoarse 
Pacific,  came  into  the  union.     Prince  Edward  Island 


SEX   IN   INDUSTRY.  127 

followed  in  1872.  Labrador  is  politically  attaclied 
to  Newfoundland,  and  a  provision  exists  by  which 
the  latter  can  be  admitted  to  the  confederacy.  The 
rights  of  the  Hudson  Bay  Company  now  belong  to 
Canada.  The  vast  north-west  territory  waits  for 
admission  to  the  Dominion.  All  British  America,  in 
short,  is  practically  a  political  unit,  under  a  vice-regal 
governor-general  and  privy  council,  a  Senate  and  an 
elective  House  of  Commons.  In  Ontario  and  Que- 
bec, every  male  subject  who  is  the  owner  or  occupier 
or  tenant  of  real  'property  of  the  assessed  value  of 
three  hundred  dollars,  has  a  vote. 

What  are  the  divergencies  of  race  in  the  different 
populations  represented  in  this  Dominion?  What 
are  the  differences  of  religion?  Fifty  years  ago 
there  were  only  a  million  people  in  British  North 
America.  Now  there  are  more  than  four  millions. 
Of  these,  1,082,940  are  of  French  descent;  850,000 
Irish;  700,000  English;  550,000  Scotch;  230,000 
German  and  Dutch.  Looking  at  the  disparities  of 
the  religious  creeds,  you  find  1,492,000  of  the  Romish 
faith,  567,000  Wesleyans  and  Methodists,  544,000 
Presbyterians,  and  494,000  Anglicans.  (^Census  of 
April  3,  1871.  See  Statesman's  Year  Book,  1878, 
p.  511.)  Next  after  the  Romanists,  the  Wesleyans 
and  Methodists  are  the  most  powerful  religious  body 
in  the  Dominion  at  this  hour. 

I  am  not  discussing  Canada  with  the  purpose  of 
raising  the  question  whether  its  annexation  to  the 
United  States  is  ever  to  take  place.  I  believe  aver- 
age American  sentiment  is  now  as  careless  on  that 


128  LABOR. 

topic  as  it  is  on  most  others  that  affect .  Canada.  We 
have  not  of  late  sought  the  annexation  of  Cuba. 
Since  slavery  was  abolished  we  have  not  been  mak- 
ing aggressions  on  our  south-western  frontier.  We 
have  borne  with  petty  insult  after  petty  insult  from 
Mexico,  without  any  military  reply,  and,  indeed, 
without  enough  protest  to  protect  our  own  inter- 
ests. The  United  States  did  not  purchase  Alaska: 
Mr.  Seward  bought  that.  We  are  the  nation  which 
refused  to  annex  San  Domingo.  In  short,  the  Amer- 
ican people  understand  perfectly  well  that  despotic 
power  may  annex  territory,  but  that  a  republic  can 
only  incorporate  territory  by  its  own  free  vote. 
[Applause.] 

K  ever  the  day  comes  when  Canada  thinks  that 
she  can  do  better  than  to  remain  substantially  an 
independent  power,  receiving  nothing  from  Great 
Britain  but  a  vice-regal  governor,  and  protection  in 
case  she  is  attacked,  Americans  will  undoubtedly 
welcome  her  to  the  Union,  but  only  on  her  own  free 
choice.  I  believe  we  are  careless  about  the  time 
when  she  shall  come.  Professor  Goldwin  Smith  is 
very  anxious  to  have  the  date  occur  early.  The 
great  forces  in  history  prevail ;  and  these,  he  thinks, 
make  for  the  political  separation  of  the  New  World 
from  the  Old.  "Canadian  nationality  being  a  lost 
cause,  the  ultimate  union  of  Canada  with  the  United 
States,"  he  afl&rms,  "  appears  now  to  be  morally  cer- 
tain." (SiUTH,  Professor  Goldwin,  "The  Polit- 
ical Destiny  of  Canada,"  Fortnigldly  Review^  1877.) 
His  opinions  on  this  topic  are  not  popular  in  Canada. 


SEX  IN  INDUSTRY.  129 

Sir  Francis  Hincks  is  not  the  only  writer  who  op- 
poses them  with  vigor.  I  suppose  that  there  is  no 
politician  in  the  Dominion  who  would  dare  risk  him- 
self before  the  people  with  advocacy  of  annexation. 

It  has  often  been  asserted  that  if  Canada  had  been 
a  portion  of  the  unsevered  American  Union,  the 
civil  war  would  not  have  occurred,  so  heavily  would 
the  votes  and  military  power  of  the  free  States  have 
been  re-enforced. 

The  United  States  rejoice  to  see  the  crescent 
power  of  the  principles  of  self-government  in  Can- 
ada. They  desire  for  the  Dominion  a  long  discipline 
in  self-rule,  such  as  our  colonies  had  here  before  we 
separated  wholly  from  the  mother-country.  There  is 
no  peerage  in  Canada,  and  only  a  shadow  of  the 
knighthood  exists  there.  Canada  has  no  State 
Church,  although  the  Romish,  having  yet  the  benefit 
of  many  old  arrangements  existing  before  the  treaty 
of  1763,  is  substantially  a  State  Church  in  Quebec  to 
this  hour. 

Let  Canada  occupy  her  spacious  western  prov- 
inces ;  let  her  open  to  the  sunlight  the  black  furrows 
of  the  Saskatchewan  valley ;  let  her  carry  the  farm- 
ing and  forest  populations  far  up  the  mild  shores  of 
that  river ;  let  her  found  in  Manitoba  manufactures 
as  well  as  agriculture ;  let  her  bind  together  her 
heterogeneous  populations  from  the  mouth  of  the  St. 
Lawrence  to  the  head  of  Lake  Superior ;  let  her  fill 
her  forests  with  the  sound  of  axes,  and  send  her 
huntsmen  along  her  streams  toward  the  North  Star, 
until  the  gleam  of  the  bay  to  which  Hudson  gave 


130  LABOR. 

his  name  comes  in  sight,  and  the  last  of  the  stunted 
poplars  and  birches  are  in  view ;  let  her  pierce  the 
colossal  spikes  and  bosses  of  the  Rocky  Mountains 
with  another  Pacific  Railway,  if  she  thinks  it  will 
bear  the  competition  of  two  and  perhaps  three 
American  railways  south  of  her.  If,  by  and  by, 
when  all  or  most  of  these  results  are  accomplished, 
Canada  concludes  that  she  would  have  a  better 
market  with  the  United  States  open  to  her  without 
any  duties  on  the  border ;  if  she  shall  conclude  that 
parliamentary  government  in  a  dependency  is  likely 
to  be  one  of  faction  or  corruption ;  if  she  shall  con- 
clude that  she  would  be  less  open  to  attack  in  case 
of  difficulties  between  England  and  the  United 
States,  were  she  a  part  of  the  Union,  —  there  is  a 
political  party  in  England  that  withdrew  military 
occupation  from  Canada,  and  would  not  risk  a  war  to 
hold  the  Dominion  within  the  British  Empire.  John 
Bright  said  in  Parliament  that  Great  Britain  could 
be  attacked  by  the  United  States  only  in  Canada,  and 
tliat  Canada  and  the  mother-country  together  could 
not  keep  American  armies  south  of  the  St.  Lawrence, 
were  the  United  States  disposed  to  move  northward. 
Let  Canada  mould  her  differing  provinces  into  some- 
thing like  homogeneousness ;  let  her  send  common 
schools  and  open  Bibles  into  Lower  Canada ;  let  her 
break  up  the  torpor  of  the  lower  St.  Lawrence  pop- 
ulations ;  let  her  make  herself,  in  short,  a  free  State 
with  a  free  church,  —  and  the  probabilities  of  her 
ultimate  incorporation  with  the  American  Union 
may  not  be  increased,  but  certainly  they  will  not 
^"»  diminished. 


SEX  IN  INDUSTEY.  131 

You  say  that  the  rustle  of  regal  robes  yet  throws 
the  Canadian  people  into  acclamations.  The  French 
are  not  very  enthusiastic ;  the  Irish  are  not.  Of 
course  politicians,  coming  to  the  front  with  the 
English  population,  are  full  of  noise ;  and  God  bless 
them  in  their  blessings  of  the  Queen's  daughter ! 
[Applause.]  I  am  ready  to  join  their  acclamations 
[applause],  and  am  not  prevented  by  envy  from 
uniting  in  them,  when  I  remember  that  these  same 
robes  rustle  on  the  other  side  of  the  globe,  and 
that  an  Empress  of  India  has  power  in  every  zone. 

The  haughty  days  of  England  are  passing  by.  In 
twenty  years  the  United  States  will  have  a  larger 
income  than  the  United  Kingdom.  Who  knows  but 
that  the  ultimate  solution  of  this  question  of  annex- 
ation or  incorporation  may  be  neither  annexation 
nor  incorporation,  but  the  belonging  of  all  English- 
speaking  peoples  to  one  commercial  league,  self- 
government  the  principle  in  each  political  division ! 
[Applause.]  Let  us  look  far  on,  and  anticipate,  with 
acclamation  of  the  deep,  thoughtful  sort,  the  time 
when  English-speaking  nations  shall  keep  treaties 
with  each  other.  Let  us  adhere  to  what  is  practical. 
Let  us  pay  the  award  arbitration  has  given  Canada 
in  a  certain  fisheries  dispute ;  let  us  enlarge  the 
influence  of  arbitration  between  English-speaking 
nations;  and  by  that  principle  form  a  commercial 
league  sufficient  to  secure  substantial  peace  for  Eng- 
lish-speaking populations  around  the  globe.  What  I 
desire  is  not  the  annexation  of  Canada,  and  not  her 
incorporation  into  the  American  Union,  but  rather 


132  LABOB. 

a  day,  such  that,  if  England  ever  grows  weak  after 
her  coal-mines  are  exhausted,  if  ever  Russia  takes 
possession  of  the  Tigris  and  the  Euphrates,  and 
makes  English  rule  difficult  or  impossible  in  India, 
if  ever  the  inevitable  approach  of  age  comes  to  our 
parents  in  the  British  Isles,  the  shoulders  of  Amer- 
ica may  be  broad  enough  to  provide,  as  the  oldest 
son  in  the  family,  for  the  younger  children,  and  for 
the  parents  also.  [Applause.]  Let  it  come,  —  an 
American-Anglican  alliance  I 

THE  LECTUBE. 

Your  daughter  is  not  at  the  looms,  but  her  grand- 
daughter may  be.  Pace  thoughtfully  to  and  fro  in 
the  city  slums,  for  your  descendants  may  live  there. 
In  a  republic,  without  the  law  of  primogeniture  or 
any  artificial  rank,  personal  position  depends  on  per- 
sonal effort.  In  America  the  children  of  Lazarus 
may  rise  to  the  position  of  Dives,  and  those  of  Dives 
may  sink  to  the  level  of  Lazarus ;  and  therefore,  in 
America,  neither  Lazarus  nor  Dives  can  understand 
himself  until  the  two  have  changed  eyes.  Under 
republican  institutions,  the  interests  of  the  rich  man 
are  every  man's  interests,  and  the  interests  of  the 
poor  man  are  every  man's  also.  Such  is  the  mobility 
of  American  society,  that  the  cause  of  the  working- 
girl  is  the  cause  of  the  parlor  on  Fifth  Avenue  ;  tlie 
cause  of  the  paorest  shop-boy  is  the  cause  of  the  mil- 
lion naire  ;  the  cause  of  the  woman  behind  the  whirring 
wheels  of  trade,  laboring  under  unspeakable  circum- 
stances, and  bringing  into  the  world  offspring  tired 


SEX  IN  INDUSTRY.  133 

from  birth,  is  the  cause  of  the  most  luxurious  house- 
hold that  to-day  kneels  about  any  family  altar  on 
Beacon  Street,  or  lifts  up  thanksgiving  in  any  happy 
New-England  home. 

I  did  not  see  the  battle  of  Gettysburg,  but  I  have 
seen  the  rank  grass  above  the  graves  of  those  who 
fell  there.  I  keep  on  my  table  a  couple  of  paper- 
weights brought  from  what  is  called  the  wheat-field 
at  Gettysburg,  where  men  were  found  killed  with 
the  bayonet,  a  rare  occurrence  even  in  a  great  battle. 
My  most  vivid  impressions  of  the  carnage  at  Gettys- 
burg come  from  the  helavy  growths  I  have  seen  above 
burial-trenches  in  the  meadows,  and  from  what  I 
read  there  on  the  tombstones.  We  have  all  heard 
how  a  three-miles  front  of  artillery  cannonaded  an- 
other three-miles  front,  and  how  the  rebel  battle-line, 
four  miles  long,  charged  on  foot  across  the  fruitful 
plain,  and  sunk,  great  parts  of  it,  into  the  earth 
on  the  passage.  Where  the  graves  lie  thickest,  we 
must  take  our  position  if  we  would  understand  what 
Gettysburg  was;  and  so,  if  in  the  carnage, — for 
there  is  no  other  word  to  describe  what  is  taking 
place,  —  if  in  the  carnage  occurring  among  young 
women,  and  middle-aged  women,  along  an  industrial 
battle-line,  extending  from  St.  Petersburg  to  San 
Francisco,  to  say  nothing  of  barbaric  lands  where 
woman  is  as  yet  only  an  animal,  we  would  under- 
stand what  the  danger  is,  we  must  take  our  position 
above  her  graves.  We  must  stand  at  the  trenches, 
where  she  is  buried  six  deep  sometimes.  They  tell 
me  that  after  Antietam,  a  great  trench  was  opened 


134  LABOR. 

in  the  corn-field,  and  ruddy  youth  and  stalwart  man- 
hood thrown  in  ten  and  fifteen  deep,  and  covered 
with  earth  four  feet  deep ;  and  that  weeks  afterward, 
when  spectators  passed  by,  the  earth  was  seen  to  rise 
and  fall  every  now  and  then  in  places,  billowing  up 
and  down  with  a  bubbling  motion  under  the  action 
of  utterly  unreportable  circumstances  beneath  the 
surface.  Now,  I  am  no  agitator  and  no  alarmist.  I 
cannot  open  all  that  festers  in  manufacturing  centres 
in  the  Old  World,  and  begins  to  fester  in  the  New, 
for  you  would  not  bear  a  frank  discussion  of  it ;  but 
I  can  bring  you  to  these  industrial  burial-trenches. 

What  are  some  of  the  rank  grasses  above  the 
graves?  what  are  some  of  the  inscriptions  on  the 
tombstones  of  female  operative  populations  ? 

Why,  here  is  a  report  by  Mr.  Mundella,  introdu- 
cing Von  Plener's  history  of  English  factory  legisla- 
tion (p.  xvi.).  Frenchmen  are  remarkable  for  exact 
military  statistics.  Napoleon  taught  them  how  to 
keep  good  tables  on  the  origin  and  fate  of  soldiers. 
France  lately  drew  10,000  conscripts  from  ten  agri- 
cultural departments.  The  number  rejected  was 
4,000.  She  drew  10,000  conscripts  fi-om  ten  indus- 
trial and  factory  departments.  The  number  rejected 
was  9,900.  There  is  an  industrial  battle-trench,  and 
whoever  will  put  his  car  on  the  ground  above  what 
is  buried  in  it  will  find  processes  going  on  beneath 
the  surface  that  cannot  be  publicly  described.  In 
the  dei)artment  of  tlie  Marnc  and  the  lower  Seine 
and  the  Eure,  essentially  manufacturing  districts, 
against  10,500  adjudged  to   be   fit  for  service,  the 


SEX  IN  INDUSTRY.  135 

number  rejected  was  14,000.  If  this  is  what  happens 
to  men,  with  their  superior  strength,  what  happens 
to  women  and  girls,  who  constitute  more  than  half 
of  the  modern  operatives  in  textile  factories? 

Well,  but  this  is  France,  you  say.  Facts  like 
these,  you  think,  can  be  gathered  only  from  Europe. 
But  I  hold  in  my  hand  a  report  of  your  Massa- 
chusetts Bureau  of  Health,  and  I  find  in  it  an  able 
document  on  the  political  economy  of  manufacturing 
towns,  written  by  Dr.  Edward  Jar  vis  of  this  Com- 
monwealth. I  shall  trouble  you  to  listen  while  I 
read  the  inscription  in  this  Massachusetts  tombstone 
—  or,  rather,  it  is  not  a  tombstone  :  it  is  only  what  I 
saw  at  Gettysburg  again  and  again,  a  rude,  frail, 
memorial  tablet  simply,  and  the  word  "  unknown " 
written  across  it.  Who  can  tell  the  names  of  these 
beneath  this  burial  surface  ?  In  another  generation 
they  may  be  of  your  own  blood.  "  In  Massachusetts, 
during  the  seven  years  from  1865  to  1871,  72,700," 
says  Dr.  Jarvis,  "  died  in  their  working  period.  In 
the  fulness  of  life  and  the  fulness  of  health,  they 
would  have  opportunity  of  laboring  for  themselves, 
their  families,  and  the  public,  in  all  3,600,000  years. 
But  the  total  of  their  labors  amounts  only  to 
1,700,000  years,  leaving  a  loss  of  1,900,000  years 
by  their  premature  deaths." 

A  million  nine  hundred  thousand  years  of  labor 
lost  in  Massachusetts  between  1865  and  1871,  by  the 
premature  deaths  of  72,000  in  their  working  period ! 
"  This  was  an  average  annual  loss  of  276,000  years 
of  service  !     Thus  it  appears,"  continues  this  official 


136  LABOR. 

document,  "  that  in  Massachusetts,  one  of  the  most 
favored  States  of  this  country  and  of  the  world, 
those  who  died  within  seven  years  had  contributed  to 
the  public  support  less  than  half,  or  only  46  per  cent, 
of  what  is  done  in  the  best  conditions  of  life." 
QFifth  Report  of  Massachusetts  Board  of  Health.^ 

Does  the  earth  rise  and  fall  above  this  slaughter- 
trench  ? 

Would  you  have  me  suggest  what  I  would  have 
done  ?  There  has  lately  been  called  into  heaven  a 
brave  physician  from  this  city,  who  dared  discuss  Sex 
in  Education.  (See  Prof.  E.  H.  Clarke's  remarkable 
monograph  on  that  subject,  Boston,  1875 ;  also,  T.  A. 
Gorton,  M.D.,  Principles  of  Mental  Hygiene  ;  Henry 
Maudsley,  M.D.,  Sex  in  Mind  and  Education.')  His 
robe  has  fallen  on  many  a  physician  now  turning 
his  attention  to  Sex  in  Industry.  (See  Dr.  Ames's 
suggestive  work  with  this  title,  Boston,  1875.)  If  I 
must  uncover  a  little  of  what  lies  beneath  this  heav- 
ing surface,  I  shall  do  so  by  suggesting  swiftly  the 
change  I  demand ;  and  not  I  only,  but  the  medical 
profession  at  large,  the  best  manufacturers  them- 
selves, and  more  than  all  the  natural  laws  of  the 
Supreme  Powers  who  are  not  elective,  and  whose 
enactments  are  not  likely  to  be  repealed. 

Dr.  Clarke  writes  :  "  There  is  an  establishment  in 
Boston,  owned  and  carried  on  by  a  man,  in  wliich 
ten  or  a  dozen  girls  are  constantly  employed.  Each 
of  them  is  given,  and  is  required  to  take,  a  vacation 
of  three  days  every  four  weeks.  [Applause.]  It  is 
scarcely  necessary  to  say  that  their  sanitary  condition 


SEX  IN  INDUSTEY.  137 

is  exceptionally  good,  and  that  the  aggregate  total 
amount  of  work  which  the  owner  obtains  is  greater 
than  that  when  persistent  attendance  and  labor  are 
required."     [Applause.] 

This,  in  brief,  is  what  I  want,  and  what  the  medi- 
cal experts  want,  what  your  board  of  health  wants, 
and  what  I  believe  the  Supreme  Powers  want,  and 
ultimately  will  have  !  [Applause.]  Until  they  obtain 
it,  these  slaughter-trenches  are  to  be  filled,  not  by 
the  agency  of  the  Supreme  Powers,  but  by  your 
legislation. 

Standing  yet  at  the  side  of  these  heaving  sods  on 
the  wide  industrial  battle-field,  I  beg  you  to  follow 
me  along  a  line  of  propositions  intended  to  emphasize 
the  seriousness  which  comes  to  us  as  we  study  the 
rising  and  falling  of  this  burial-surface. 

1.  The  mortality  among  girls  increases  between 
fourteen  and  eighteen,  and  among  men  between 
twenty-one  and  twenty-six. 

This  is  a  law  for  the  two  sexes  wholly  aside  from 
any  result  of  their  occupations.  How  strong  are 
your  daughters  to  be  when  they  go  into  this  indus- 
trial contest?  They  are  a  part  of  a  battle-front 
extending  all  the  way  from  the  Ural  mountains  to 
the  Pacifk;  seas.  It  appears  that  they  must  march 
out  upon  the  Gettysburg  charge  at  about  the  time 
when  their  strength  is  most  uncertain.  The  mortal- 
it}^  of  young  persons  of  the  female  sex  increases  be- 
tween fourteen  and  eighteen,  when  boys  are  tough- 
est. In  the  yet  sparsely  settled  United  States  you 
have  two  hundred  thousand  girls  under  fifteen  in  this 


138  LABOR. 

battle-front.  You  have  two  million  females  in  your 
industries ;  and  of  these  two  hundred  thousand  are 
girls.  Most  of  this  number  ought  to  be  called  cliil- 
dren.  By  a  child  I  mean  any  one  under  fourteen ; 
by  a  young  person,  any  one  between  fourteen  and 
eighteen ;  by  a  woman,  a  female  over  eighteen.  Ex- 
perts of  the  jBrst  rank  tell  us  that  a  great  physiologi- 
cal law  is  violated  in  the  age  at  which  we  admit  girls 
who  are  children  to  work  behind  the  looms.  There 
is  no  prospect  that  this  violated  natural  law  will  be 
repealed.  In  almost  entire  disregard  of  notorious 
physiological  facts,  you  are  sending  girls  more  fre- 
quently than  boys  into  many  forms  of  manufactures. 
You  require  almost  the  same  amount  of  physical 
strain  from  each,  and  often  pay  the  girl  not  more 
than  half  of  what  you  pay  the  boy.  [Applause.] 
Is  there  any  meanness  in  that?  [Applause.]  I 
have  an  indignation  that  cannot  be  expressed  when 
I  think  of  the  physical  limitations  of  woman,  and  of 
the  manner  in  which  she  is  obliged,  when  standing 
alone  in  the  world,  to  strain  all  her  strength  to  obtain 
half  a  man  gets  for  the  same  labor.     [Applause.] 

2.  The  strength  of  the  female  is  to  that  of  the 
male  as  IG  to  26. 

That  is  Dr.  Draper's  opinion.  (^Human  Physiology^ 
p.  546.)  There  are  various  judgments  on  this  point ; 
that  is  about  the  average  estimate.  Woman's  mus- 
cles contract  with  less  energy,  and  are  more  easily 
wearied,  than  tliose  of  man.  Peculiarity  of  construc- 
tion in  the  bones  of  the  pelvis  and  chest  give  rise 
in  woman  to  characteristic   methods  of  walking,  and 


SEX   IN   INDUSTRY.  139 

movement  of  the  arm  in  attempting  to  throw  a  stone. 
We  understand  perfectly  that  in  the  foreground  of 
this  charging  host  the  female  operative  has  a  strength 
only  as  16  compared  with  26  on  the  part  of  the  male, 
and  that  the  sickly  period,  from  fourteen  to  eighteen, 
is  a  weight  on  this  small  strength ;  and  yet  we  expect 
that  these  weaker  soldiers  in  the  industrial  army 
will,  in  some  sense,  keep  step  with  the  strongest. 
The  natural  law  violated  here  is  not  likely  to  be 
repealed. 

3.  The  change  of  insects  from  the  primary  to  the 
perfect  or  imago  state  is  not  a  greater  one  than 
occurs  in  both  sexes  between  the  ages  of  twelve  and 
sixteen,  but  earlier  in  most  cases  with  the  female 
than  the  male. 

At  the  side  of  these  burial-trenches  you  will  allow 
me  to  mention,  although  I  may  not  discuss,  certain 
natural  laws  holy  as  the  fire  of  Sinai. 

4.  By  fixed  natural  law  there  exists  on  the  jjart  of 
woman,  as  there  does  not  on  the  part  of  man,  a  neces- 
sity or  need  of  a  periodic  rest. 

5.  On  the  part  of  the  married  woman,  it  is  evident 
that  the  laws  -of  health  forbid,  at  certain  definite 
periods,  severe  mental  or  physical  labor. 

6.  As  those  laws  of  health  for  the  two  sexes  differ, 
and  are  not  likely  to  be  repealed,  it  is  the  wisdom  of 
legislation  to  make  its  enactments  coincide  with  those 
of  the  Supreme  Powers. 

And,  now,  what  would  I  have  ? 

7.  As  in  France  a  council  of  salubrity,  so  public 
discussion   in  this  country,  and  commissions  of  in- 


140  LABOR. 

quiry,  and  advice  of  experts,  and  all  the  light  we  can 
obtain  from  every  quarter,  and  not  merely  mediaeval 
custom,  should  determine  what  employments  are 
suited  to  women. 

8.  No  woman  should  be  engaged  in  employment 
unsuited  to  her  sex,  and  declared  to  be  so  by  the 
council  of  salubrity. 

9.  No  girl  under  fifteen  should  be  employed  in 
any  of  the  occupations  thus  permitted  to  women. 

10.  Undoubtedly  the  human  race  would  be  the 
gainer  if  we  did  not  employ  a  girl  under  eighteen 
in  factory  labor,  unless  by  special  permission  from  a 
surgeon. 

11.  In  all  employments  opened  to  woman,  or  con- 
sidered advisable  for  her,  she  should  be  permitted  a 
periodic  absence,  without  pecuniary  loss.  [Applause.] 

Thank  God  that  without  my  uncovering  this 
slaughter-trench,  you  understand  what  is  beneath  its 
surface  !  This  proposition  has  been  officially  defend- 
ed by  your  Massachusetts  Labor  Bureau,  which  has 
made  a  series  of  investigations  of  unequalled  value 
as  to  the  special  effects  of  certain  forms  of  employ- 
ment on  female  health.  (See  report  for  1875,  Part 
II.,  especially  pp.  70,  71,  76,  and  111.) 

12.  Additional  vacations  should  be  the  right  of 
women  employed  in  occupations  requiring  a  high 
degree  of  mental  concentration  and  pliysical  exertion. 

13.  Sanitary  supervision  of  all  large  factories 
should  be  furnished  at  the  expense  of  the  proprietors. 

14.  You  must  allow  me  to  say,  and  to  expand  the 
proposition  in  a  subsequent  lecture,  that  in  crowded 


SEX  IN   INDUSTRY.  141 

rooms,  where  conversation  is  not  interrupted  by  the 
noise  of  machinery,  there  may  be  a  foul  or  a  clean 
system  of  factory  management ;  and  that  the  min- 
gling of  the  sexes,  under  careless  overseers,  and  the 
filling  of  these  rooms  with  profanity,  and  possibly 
with  obscene  conversation,  from  morning  to  night,  is 
not  calculated  to  improve  the  moral  condition  of  fac- 
tory operative  populations,  containing,  it  may  be,  in 
time  to  come,  your  daughters  and  mine.     [Applause.] 

15.  Married  women  should  not  be  employed  in 
factories  without  surgical  certificates  of  fitness  for 
the  occupation.     [Applause.] 

There  is  a  proverb  in  England  to  the  effect  that 
whoever  among  the  female  operatives  can  manage 
four  looms  at  once,  is  likely  to  be  wed.  "  Hoo's  a 
four-loomer,  hoo's  like  to  be  wed,"  say  the  operatives 
on  the  banks  of  those  canals  in  Manchester.  I  sup- 
pose that  the  concentration  of  attention  required  in 
the  women  who  operate  some  of  our  most  skilful 
machines  is  one  source  of  the  breaking-down  of  the 
female  constitution.  The  physicians  tell  us  that 
this  close  mental  application  at  work  is  exceedingly 
inimical  to  female  health,  especially  when  the  labor 
must  be  performed  standing.  The  printer  at  the 
case,  if  a  male,  stands  easily,  and  becomes  accus- 
tomed to  his  position ;  but  go  into  your  printing- 
offices,  and  ask  whether  the  sexes  are  physically 
equal  in  the  ability  to  face  the  compositor's  toil. 
Woman  must  be  seated  when  she  sets  type.  The 
general  experience  is  that  a  woman  cannot  bear  to 
stand  at  a  machine  as  long   as   a   man.      Even   in 


142  LABOR. 

the  schoolroom,  speaking  to  her  pupils,  the  female 
teacher  does  well  to  be  seated  most  of  the  time. 
There  are  deep  reasons,  not  to  be  discussed  here, 
for  giving  a  periodic  rest  to  female  operatives,  who 
must  have  brain  in  their  finger-tips.  She  who  sets 
the  types  the  most  swiftly,  or  she  who  manages  the 
telegraph  most  sldlfully,  may  not  need  more  mental 
concentration  than  she  who  manages  four  looms  and 
is  like  to  be  wed.  There  must  be  no  mistakes  in 
her  physical  manipulations.  There  is  penalty  at 
once  if  a  single  thread  breaks.  I  have  seen,  at  Law- 
rence and  at  Lowell,  machines  so  perfect  that  if  a 
single  thread  is  broken  out  of  the  multitudinous 
threads  they  spin,  they  stop  like  sensitive  things  of 
life  until  the  thread  is  mended.  She  who  is  a  four- 
loomer  must  have  her  mind  upon  every  thread,  and 
this  ten  or  twelve  hours  a  day,  and  day  after  day. 

Perhaps  the  summer  day  is  hot,  and  she  is  at  work 
under  the  roof.  Perhaps  the  winter  day  is  cold,  and 
she  must  live  in  a  poisonously  vitiated  hot  atmos- 
phere. Some  of  our  factories  are  models  in  their 
sanitary  arrangements,  but  some  are  not  all.  Our 
first-class  manufacturing  establishments  I  believe  to 
be  the  best  in  the  world.  The  third-rate  ones  are 
as  yet,  however,  the  largest  class.  I  am  not  assail- 
ing capitalists  and  employers  as  a  mass.  The  third- 
rate  men  among  tlie  employers  are  careless,  and 
have  necessitated  the  factory  legislation  of  the  Old 
World  and  the  New.  I  have  on  my  side  constantly, 
in  this  discussion  of  socialism  and  labor  reform,  tho 
best  sentiment  of  the  higher  class  of  manufacturers. 


SEX   IN  INDUSTRY.  143 

It  may  easily  happen  that  this  poor  woman  works  in 
a  third-rate  establishment.  It  may  be  that  she  is 
not  allowed  proper  time  for  her  meals.  It  may  be 
that  this  intense  mental  concentration  has  no  peri- 
odic rest.  It  may  be  that  her  own  support  and  that 
of  her  family  depends  upon  her  steady  labor  in 
these  unfavorable  physical  conditions.  The  result 
is,  in  seven  cases  out  of  ten,  that  she  goes  into  this 
industrial  slg^ughter-trench  before  she  is  fifty.  The 
certainty  is,  as  I  have  shown  you,  that  in  a  multi- 
tude of  cases,  so  numerous  as  to  be  absolutely  ter- 
rific, the  operative  populations  pass  out  of  the 
world  by  premature  deaths. 

It  is  said  that  for  every  one  that  dies  prematurely, 
there  are  two  sick  most  of  the  time.  If  you  take 
the  records  I  have  read  to  you  on  these  tom])stones 
of  the  dead  ones  who  have  gone  under  the  sod,  and 
multiply  their  numbers  by  two,  you  will  obtain  the 
record  of  the  sick  ones  who  lie  on  the  couches  of 
languishing  more  or  less  often.  I  speak,  I  think, 
wholly  within  bounds,  when  I  say  that  the  tossing 
of  this  earth  above  the  slaughter-trench  is  not  the 
whole  horror.  The  tossing  of  the  coverlets  on  beds 
of  pain  is  another  portion  of  the  evil ;  but  the  lar- 
gest horror  of  all  is  the  coming  into  the  world  of 
populations  not  capable  of  sustaining  the  burdens 
likely  to  be  put  upon  them  from  the  very  outset. 
The  rising  and  falling  of  the  coverlets  which  are 
spread  over  the  already  sick  limbs  of  unborn  gener- 
ations are  what  sicken  me  most.  I  am  horrified  by 
this  heaving  surface  of  earth  above  the  trench.     I 


144  LABOR. 

am  horrified  by  these  sick-beds;  but  when  I  think 
that  the  citizen  is  taxed  before  he  is  born,  and  of 
what  Edmund  Burke  used  to  say  about  the  object 
of  government  being  to  make  strong  men  and  strong 
women  and  good  citizens,  and  to  educate  them,  and 
that  nothing  is  worth  any  thing  in  government  un- 
less good  men  and  good  women  are  the  result; 
when  I  -think  of  the  effect  of  these  factory  abuses 
upon  factory  populations,  once  become  ^hereditary, — 
I  look  up  to  Almighty  God,  and  pray  him,  in  the 
name  of  his  own  most  holy  laws,  to  fasten  our  eyes 
upon  the  slaughter  of  the  innocents.  The  aged, 
you  say,  are  not  to  be  pitied ;  but  even  the  mediae- 
val baron  had  pity  for  his  aged  and  infirm  retainers. 
Middle  age,  you  think,  can  take  care  of  itself.  But 
what  of  the  unborn,  and  those  that  are  to  come  in 
a  long  procession  into  this  serried  front  of  the  in- 
dustrial battle-line  in  ages  yet  ahead  of  us  ? 

Where  is  the  old  spirit  of  New  England,  that 
looked  forward  and  founded  institutions  for  genera- 
tions not  yet  visible  on  the  verge  of  coming  time  ? 
Webster's  eyes  were  always  fastened  on  the  respon- 
sibility of  the  present  to  the  future.  Advance, 
coming  generations !  was  his  perpetual  salutation 
to  the  ages  before  him.  Where  are  his  successors  ? 
Where  are  the  men,  who,  looking  on  the  abuses  in 
industrial  populations,  dare  so  reform  them  as  to  be 
able  to  gaze  into  the  face  of  God,  and  say.  Advance, 
future  generations  I  to  better  conditions  than  hea- 
thendom gave  you,  and  to  better  than  the  Old 
World  allowed  you.    Advance  to  circumstances  in 


SEX  IN   INDUSTRY.  145 

which  socialism  can  seem  only  a  nightmare.  Ad- 
vance to  such  treatment  that  you  shall  yourselves 
be  convinced  that  Dives  and  Lazarus,  God's  hand 
on  the  shoulder  of  the  one,  and  his  hand  on  the 
shoulder  of  the  other,  have  at  last  in  the  history  of 
industry  been  brought  face  to  face,  and  to  the  profit 
of  both  have  changed  eyes.     [Applause.] 


VI. 

SEX  IN  INDUSTRY. 


THE   ONE   HUNDRED   AND   SIXTEENTH   LECTURE   IN   THK 

BOSTON  MONDAY   LECTURESHIP,    DELIVERED  IN 

TREMONT   TEMPLE,   DEC.   9. 


Let  U3  but  shorten  the  term  of  daily  labor,  giving,  thereby,  to 
those  employed  the  means  of  enjojing  their  inalienable  right  of 
time  for  self-improvement  and  domestic  life,  and  I  believe  that,  in 
the  present  state  of  the  country,  the  factory  system  might  thus  be 
made  the  channel  of  comforts  and  blessings.  "VThen  I  have  contem- 
plated a  multitude  of  twelve  or  fourteen  hundred  people,  congre- 
gated under  a  single  roof,  governed  by  the  revolutions  of  a  single 
engine,  all  within  reach  of  daily  intercourse,  of  watchful  care,  of 
every  happy  influence,  I  have  often  said  to  myself:  I  wish  to  God 
I  were  a  factory-owner.  —  Lohd  SnAiiTESBUBr :  Speech  at  Manchester. 

Thou  art  a  Man,  I  think;  thou  art  not  a  mere  building  Beaver, 
or  two-legged  Cotton-Spider;  thou  hast  verily  a  Soul  in  thee,  as- 
phyxied  or  otherwise!  Sooty  Manchester,  —  it  too  is  built  on  the 
infinite  Abysses;  overspanned  by  the  skyey  Firmaments;  and  there 
is  birth  in  it,  and  death  in  it ;  —  and  it  is  every  whit  as  wonderful, 
as  fearful,  im^imaginable,  as  the  oldest  Salem  or  Prophetic  City. — 
Cabltle. 


VI. 

SEX  IN  INDUSTRY. 

PEELUDE  ON  CUEEENT  EVENTS. 

Political  prizes  in  the  United  States  are  now 
greater  than  they  ever  were  in  the  Roman  Empire, 
and  are  doubling  in  fatness  and  value  every  thirty 
years.  Caesar,  Antony,  and  Lepidus  were  never 
tempted  by  spoils  as  alluring  as  will  dazzle  and  per- 
haps derange  the  American  political  future.  We  are 
as  honest  as  most  men  can  be  expected  to  be  under 
our  present  immensely  mischievous  customs  as  to  the 
civil  service.  A  hundred  thousand  men  turned  out 
and  put  in  every  time  we  change  our  national  execu- 
tive ;  and  soon  two  hundred  thousand  to  be  turned 
out  and  put  in,  if  you  follow  the  accursed  spoils 
system  !  You  expect  men  to  be  honest  with  this  vast 
patronage  to  be  won  by  purchasing  a  canvassing 
board  in  Louisiana  or  Florida,  South  Carolina  or 
Oregon !  Statesmen  of  the  first  rank  will  be  honest ; 
but  to  expect  fourth-rate  politicians  to  be  so  in  the 
presence  of  these  temptations,  is  to  fly  in  the  face 
of  the  teachings  of  all  history. 

149 


150  LABOR. 

What  are  a  few  of  the  facts  illustrating  recent 
American  ingenuity  in  frustrating  the  popular  will 
•expressed  at  the  polls?  Ghastly  election  frauds 
startle  South  and  North,  and  achieve  historical 
prominence  from  the  discussion  of  them  in  a  Presi- 
dential message.  The  ostrich  hides  her  thin,  wilful 
head  in  the  sand,  and  thinks  her  whole  body  cov- 
ered. Great  is  the  American  eagle,  greater  the 
American  peacock,  but  greatest  of  all  the  Ameri- 
can ostrich.  Looking  around  the  present  national 
horizon  from  the  point  of  view  of  the  political  party 
now  in  power,  we  see  fraud,  —  chiefly  in  the  South 
and  among  the  fifth-rate  managers  of  the  Demo- 
cratic party.  But,  if  there  were  a  Democratic  Presi- 
dent at  the  White  House,  I  am  not  sure  but  that  the 
nation  would  have  evidence  before  it  of  fraud  among 
fifth-rate  Republican  political  managers.  Both  politi- 
cal parties  affirm  that  the  deciding  votes  in  a  close 
national  election  were  bought  and  sold ;  that  is,  that 
the  Presidency  itself  was  on  sale ! 

It  is  alleged  that  the  cipher  despatches  which  of 
late  have  been  unearthed  by  the  superb  enterprise 
of  the  leading  American  newspaper,  were  exhibited 
to  prominent  men  in  Congress  before  the  electoral 
commission  was  appointed.  Both  the  Field  and  the 
Morton  committee  demanded  at  that  time  the  tele- 
graphic despatches  on  both  sides ;  but  Mr.  Orton  of 
the  telegraph-company  refused  to  surrender  them. 
lie  assured  Senator  Morton  that  the  secret  telegrams 
would  compromise  conspicuous  men  of  both  parties, 
and  make  a  horrible  scandal.     He  showed  them  to 


SEX   IN   INDUSTRY.  151 

representatives  on  both  sides,  who  saw  that  they 
would  bring  disgrace  on  prominent  men,  but  who 
insisted,  nevertheless,  on  their  publication.  Obliged 
to  surrender  the  despatches  to  the  congressional 
committees,  Orton  at  last  gave  them  up  to  Senator 
Morton,  who  used  portions  of  them  to  overcome 
Democratic  opposition  to -the  count  after  the  decision 
of  the  electoral  commission.  The  despatches,  it  is 
affirmed,  were  found  among  his  papers  after  his  de- 
cease, but  some  of  them  had  been  destroyed.  This 
account,  to  which  papers  as  widely  contrasted  as  "  The 
New  York  Herald"  and  "The  New  York  Nation" 
(see  the  latter,  Oct.  17,  pp.  231  and  234)  have  given 
currency  and  substantial  credence,  agrees  well  with 
the  version  which  has  been  current  in  well-informed 
circles  in  Washington  since  the  two  political  parties, 
just  before  the  electoral  commission  met,  agreed  not 
to  examine  each  other's  record  any  further.  I  know 
how  frankly  I  am  speaking ;  but  tliis  is  a  place  in 
which  to  speak  frankly,  for  this  platform  is  neither 
political  nor  partisan.     [Applause.] 

The  use  which  has  been  made  of  the  cipher  de- 
spatches by  "  The  New  York  Tribune  "  deserves  great 
praise,  although  the  exposure  has  been  a  party- 
weapon  chiefly.  What  we  want  now  is  all  the 
despatches  that  can  be  obtained,  and  as  full  an 
account  as  possible  of  any  that  are  missing.  If  it 
can  be  shown  that  only  one  political  party  has  been 
implicated  in  secret  fraud,  great  advantage  will,  of 
course,  inure  to  the  exonerated  opposite  party ;  and 
so  that  party  should  be  willing  to  bring  forward  the 


152  LABOR. 

rest  of  the  despatches,  in  case  they  are  in  existence. 
Thus  the  investigation  would  assist  to  bring  about 
general  purification,  and  would  not  be  merely  a 
party-weapon. 

What  has  been  proved  by  the  investigation  thus 
far  ?  In  spite  of  the  partisan  character  of  the  expos- 
m*e  nearly  all  good  men  are,  as  I  judge,  agreed :  — 

1.  That  in  Oregon  five  thousand  dollars  were 
offered  for  an  elector,  and  Democratic  money  sent  to 
pay  for  the  fraud. 

2.  That  in  Florida  fifty  thousand  dollars  were  thus 
offered  by  a  responsible  agent  at  Gramercy  Park  in 
New  York. 

3.  That  in  South  Carolina  eighty  thousand  dollars 
were  offered,  and  the  money  sent  to  Baltimore  to 
pay  for  the  fraud. 

4.  That  in  Louisiana  the  Republican  record  is  not 
clean,  and  the  Democratic  far  from  being  so. 

5.  That  the  "  Tribune "  exposure  has  received  no 
adequate  reply. 

The  public  keeps  in  mind  the  grave  public  de- 
nials by  the  principal  character  implicated,  and  the 
high  honor  he  has  received  from  a  large  portion  of 
the  American  people.  I  think  it  fair  to  affirm  that 
his  explanations,  in  view  of  the  great  circumstantial- 
ity and  coherence  of  the  charges  publicly  brought 
against  his  agents,  have  not  been  wholly  satisfactory. 
Perhaps  they  exonerate  him  in  a  slight  degree ;  but, 
if  he  knew  nothing  of  what  his  agents  were  doing, 
liis  indignation  at  their  acts  ought  to  be  such  as  to 
cause  him  now  to  drop  them  from  his  employment. 


SEX  IN  rNDUSTRY.  153 

which  he  has  not  done.  The  denials  of  the  subsid- 
iary men  in  the  conspiracy  are  still  more  lame  than 
those  of  the  principal.  The  chief  of  the  subsidiary 
agents  affirms  that  he  has  nothing  to  say  on  the  sub- 
ject ;  but  whoever,  in  his  position,  has  nothing  to  say 
about  these  charges,  has  much  to  say.  [Applause.] 
But  the  most  suggestive  facts  proved  are  these :  — 

6.  That  the  Presidency  was  for  sale  by  a  few  cor- 
rupt men. 

7.  That  third  and  fourth  rate  politicians  offered  to 
buy  it,  and  came  near  doing  so. 

8.  That  our  electoral  machinery  is  now  such  that 
at  any  time  in  a  closely  contested  national  election  the 
presidency  may  be  for  sale  by  a  few  politicians  of  the 
tenth  rank  in  some  State  where  the  count  is  to  settle 
the  dispute. 

If  we  escaped  from  the  existence  of  a  fraudulent 
Presidency,  it  was  not  on  account  of  any  peculiar 
excellence  in  our  electoral  machinery  or  in  the  fifth 
and  seventh  rate  politicians  who  managed  it.  It  was 
not  a  result  of  the  virtue  of  several  prominent  men 
in  both  parties.  I  believe  that  the  leader  of  the 
Republican  party  now  in  the  executive  chair  at  Wash- 
ington is  as  clear  from  fraud  as  the  undriven  snow 
from  stain.  [Applause.]  While  we  pride  ourselves 
on  this  confidence,  however,  let  us  keep  in  mind  the 
large  and  startling  final  fact  proved  by  our  memor- 
able experience  in  1876. 

How  far  does  bribery  go  in  our  Northern  city  elec- 
tions ?  Here  is  Chicago,  and  she  has  just  found  out 
that  a  vote  and  a  count  are  two  things.     All  nations 


154  LABOR. 

have  heard  of  the  existence  in  New  York  City  of  a 
Tweed  ring,  accustomed  to  stufl&ng  ballot-boxes,  mis- 
counting the  votes,  and  various  forms  of  intimidation 
by  roughs  at  the  polls.  Portions  of  the  Southern 
Democratic  party  have  improved  on  Tweed's  meas- 
ures. He  never  knew  how  to  use  tissue  paper  as 
adroitly  as  they  do.  He  never  employed  the  shot- 
gun, as  they  have  done;  he  never  dared  strike  off 
names  from  the  registry-list,  as  has  been  done  in  the 
Southern  States.  We  are  peculiarly  indignant  over 
the  gerrymandering  of  several  Southern  electoral 
districts,  or  the  opening  of  polling-places  in  such 
locations  as  made  them  exceedingly  inconvenient  for 
black  citizens.  But  that  word,  gerrymandering,  I 
believe,  originated  in  Massachusetts. 

We  must  go  farther  back  than  to  the  cipher  de- 
spatches of  1876,  if  we  are  to  reach  the  root  of  our 
difficulty.  I  suppose  it  to  be  true  that  a  great  num- 
ber of  average  voters  in  both  political  parties  expect 
to  sell  their  votes  in  closely  contested  elections. 
Riding  down  the  Hudson  the  other  day  with  a  promi- 
nent politician,  he  told  me  that  with  his  own  e^'es  he 
saw,  in  a  city  outside  of  New  England,  church-mem- 
bers going  about  with  their  hands  full  of  currency, 
and  paying  two  dollars,  three,  five,  for  votes  on  elcc- 
tionnlay.  An  important  measure  was  up,  and  these 
church-members  were  determined  to  carry  it  through  ; 
and  in  the  case  to  which  I  am  making  reference  they 
did  carry  an  important  reform  in  a  city  of  fifty  or 
eighty  thousand  inhabitants.  They  carried  it  by 
open  bribery  at  the  polls.    Now,  what  are  the  churches 


SEX  IN  INDUSTRY.  155 

to  say  in  such  a  case  ?  Are  you  ready  to  indorse 
action  of  that  sort  in  men  who  profess  to  look  to  the 
Holy  of  Holies  for  leadership  ?  I  was  told  by  a  promi- 
nent politician  the  other  day,  not  far  from  New  York 
City,  that,  when  he  put  the  question  to  a  Democratic 
manager,  "  How  many  of  your  day-laborers,  minor 
mechanics,  and  men  of  small  means,  refuse  to  be 
bought?"  the  reply  was,  "Not  over  a  third.  In  a 
close  election  we  can  buy  two-thirds  of  all  the  votes 
cast  by  the  unfortunate  class.  The  wealthy  do  not 
sell  their  votes ;  but  those  who  need  to  exert  them- 
selves a  little  severely  to  make  the  year's  ends  meet, 
sometimes  put  down  among  their  assets  their  votes. 
Father  and  four  sons  in  a  family  put  down  twenty- 
five  dollars  for  their  votes,  among  their  assets."  I 
have  heard  of  that  being  done,  and  of  a  man  being 
elected  to  Congress  who  bought  two  hundred  and 
fifty  votes,  and  was  carried  into  office  by  them ;  and 
he  kept  a  list  of  the  men  he  bought,  and  used  to 
show  it  to  his  friends  as  a  matter  of  pride.  Political 
clubs  of  the  lower  order  sell  themselves  in  bodies  in 
many  city  elections ;  and  this  infamy  we  sleep  over. 
We  are  not  awakened  by  the  yet  more  humiliating 
fact  of  the  bribery  of  the  pinched  but  usually  honest 
country-side. 

We  live  in  a  kind  of  stupidity,  a  sort  of  jocose 
indifference,  concerning  average  bribery  at  elections ; 
and  even  church-members  who  bribe  escape  any  se- 
vere condemnation,  but  deserve  to  be  smitten  by  the 
thunderbolts  of  church  censure.  [Applause.]  I  had 
almost  said  that  the  answer  I  should  be  tempted  to 
make  to  the  offer  of  a  bribe  would  be  a  blow. 


156  LABOB. 

The  Rev.  Dr.  Dale,  from  England,  in  a  public  ad- 
dress at  New  Haven,  defended  the  proposition  that 
under  a  free  representative  government,  any  church- 
member  who  has  a  right  to  vote,  and  will  not,  deserves 
to  be  censured  by  the  church ;  and,  without  repent- 
ance, should  be  expelled  from  church  communion. 
Now,  I  do  not  go  as  far  as  that ;  but,  in  the  presence 
of  an  audience  which  understands  this  subject  in  its 
relations  to  manufactures,  and  in  a  State  which  has 
been  accused  by  the  foremost  orator  of  the  Common- 
wealth of  intimidating  working-men,  I  undertake  to 
say  that  when  church-members  are  found  with  their 
fingers  full  of  filthy  lucre,  peddling  it  out  in  the  way 
of  bribes  around  the  polls  on  election-day,  and  their 
attention  is  called  in  private  to  the  scandal  they  are 
bringing  on  God's  house,  and  they  do  not  repent, 
they  ouglit  to  be  ejected  from  church  communion. 
[Applause.] 

You  think  that  the  young  men's  movement  in  poli- 
tics will  purge  the  polls  in  cities,  and  that  a  good 
registry-law  will  bring  us  out  of  frauds  at  the  ballot- 
box.  Yes ;  but  our  cities  are  growing  faster  than  the 
rest  of  the  country.  We  have  heard  over  and  over, 
from  all  kinds  of  public  authorities,  that  a  fifth  part 
of  our  population  now  lives  in  cities,  and  that  cities 
are  the  hotbeds  of  greed  and  fraud.  The  young  men 
of  Boston  may  take  care  of  this  city :  it  is  a  small 
place.  Possil)ly  the  young  men  might  take  care  of 
New  York :  it  is  a  small  place  yet.  But  liow  are  we 
to  take  care  of  a  couple  of  Londons  in  this  country 
when  our  population  has  doubled  once  or  twice  more? 


SEX  IN   INDUSTRY.  •  157 

Certainly,  if  we  fail  in  a  general  appeal  to  the  public, 
there  is  no  reason  why  we  should  fail  in  an  appeal  to 
the  ministry  and  church-members.  The  ministry  are 
not  politicians.  We  are  at  times  a  kind  of  arbitrat- 
ing board  between  extremes  in  politics.  We  are  not 
seeking  office.  Everybody  knows  that  we  are  not 
dependent  on  this  or  that  political  faction.  It  is 
time  that  the  ministry  of  the  United  States  should 
rise  to  its  feet,  and  declare  its  right  to  be  heard  on 
this  terrific  evil  of  election-frauds.  Let  us  bring  into 
practice  the  principle  that  men  guilty  of  receiving 
or  of  offering  bribes  shall  not  be  kept  in  the  church ; 
and,  if  out  of  it,  shall  be  prevented  from  coming  in. 
[Applause.] 

"  Not  lightly  fall,  -without  recall, 
The  written  scrolls  a  breath  may  float ; 
The  crowning  fact,  the  kingliest  act 
Of  freedom  is  a  freeman's  vote." 

Whittier  :  Election  Eve. 
[Applause.] 

THE  LECTURE. 

It  is  the  fortune  of  Massachusetts  to  have  legalized 
more  complete  investigation  concerning  the  condi- 
tion of  working-womien  than  any  other  political  com- 
munity known  to  history.  The  fact  has  been 
officially  ascertained  that  in  this  Commonwealth  the 
average  pay  for  ten  hours'  labor  by  a  woman  is  eighty- 
two  cents.  The  statement  was  lately  published  in 
New  York,  that  a  dozen  shirts  can  be  made  to-day 
in  that  city  for  thirty-five  cents,  and  the  assertion 


158  •  LABOK. 

was  verified,  by  a  letter  from  a  female  operative. 
(^Trihine^  Dec.  6.)  My  object  is  not  to  direct  your 
attention  to  the  upper  rank  of  female  labor,  but  to 
those  lower  grades  which  you  know  must  exist,  if 
you  take  as  authentic  the  official  statistics.  Aver- 
ages could  not  be  brought  down  so  low,  were  not 
the  lower  ranks  extensive.  It  is  out  of  the  lowest 
ranks  of  low-paid  female  labor  that  some  of  the 
worst  evils  of  cities  arise.  If  you  continue  to 
squeeze  the  heart  of  girlhood  by  low  wages,  you 
must  expect  to  find  in  the  gutters  of  cities  a  good 
deal  of  red,  clotted  slime ;  and,  if  you  like  to  roll 
in  it,  remember  that  you  have  squeezed  out  the 
blood.  [Applause.]  With  eyes  open  to  notorious 
facts  concerning  low-paid  female  labor,  I  have  at 
times  an  indignation  that  would  not  appear  sober  if 
it  were  fully  expressed ;  and  yet  these  statistics 
burn  with  a  hotter  fire  than  I  have  ever  found  in  my 
own  heart ;  and  I  believe  that,  if  3-ou  fasten  attention 
on  them  but  for  a  moment,  they  will,  kindle  their  own 
fire  in  yours. 

1.  Tliese  propositions  represent  the  condition  of 
working-women  in  iSIassachusetts :  — 

(1)  In  1875  the  Massachusetts  Labor  Bureau  re- 
ceived statements  of  personal  earnings  and  expenses 
from  15,824  females  depending  for  siipport  upon 
daily  wages. 

Many  more  than  15,000  returns  were  received,  but 
the  Board  struck  out  of  the  account  all  the  state- 
ments that  were  in  any  way  imperfect.  Over  15,000 
good  ones  remained,  complete  in  every  essential  par- 


SEX  IN  INDUSTRY.  159 

ticular.  I  undertake  to  say  the  world  never  saw  as 
many  budgets  of  poor  working-girls  opened  as  were 
examined  officially  in  this  Commonwealth  in  1875. 

(2)  The  average  number  of  days  these  working- 
women  were  employed  in  a  year  was  258. 

(3)  Their  average  earnings  were  82  cents  a  day. 
They  worked  on  the  average  more  than  ten  hours  a 
day,  that  is,  more  than  sixty  hours  a  week. 

(4)  Only  one  in  a  hundred  owned  a  house. 

(5)  These  females  were  paying  on  the  average 
$93  a  year  rent. 

(6)  The  cost  of  living  of  the  working-women  was 
reduced  on  the  average  to  $182.86  a  year. 

You  are  not  interested  in  these  figures  ?  No  ;  but 
they  may  be  family  statistics  for  your  descendants  ! 

2.  These  propositions  represent  the  condition  of 
working-men  in  Massachusetts :  — 

(1)  In  the  year  1875  the  same  Bureau  received 
returns  from  55,515  males  engaged  in  the  industries 
of  this  Commonwealth,  and  depending  for  their  sup- 
port upon  daily  wages. 

(2)  The  average  number  of  the  days  they  were 
employed  in  the  year  was  241. 

(3)  Their  average  earnings  were  $2.01  a  day, 
against  82  cents  for  women. 

(4)  Only  one  in  a  hundred,  however,  owned  a 
house. 

(5)  These  males  were  paying  on  an  average  $109 
a  year  as  rent. 

(6)  The  cost  of  living  of  the  working-men  was 
reduced  on  the  average  to  $488.96  a  year. 


160  LABOR. 

You  assure  me,  however,  that  it  is  useless  to  try  to 
frighten  an  intelligent  audience  by  mere  averages ; 
for  of  course  there  are  a  few  poverty-stricken  dis- 
tricts even  in  Massachusetts.  You  tliink  that  by 
putting  in  the  Cape  and  Nantucket  and  all  the  rural 
districts,  and  by  allowing  working  men  and  women 
to  make  their  own  reports,  and  by  manipulating  the 
figures  a  little,  these  startling  results  can  easily  be 
brought  out.  But  here  I  hold  in  my  hands  the  offi- 
cial report  of  your  Labor  Bureau  for  1876,  and  in  it 
these  return's  are  arranged  by  counties  (pp.  49-64). 
Remember,  also,  that  your  Bureau  was  honored  by 
being  appointed  to  the  work  of  taking  the  decennial 
census  in  this  Commonwealth.  In  1875  the  labor  of 
the  State  census  and  that  of  the  bureau  of  industry 
were  conjoined.  There  were  returns  obtained  from 
employers  as  well  as  from  working-men  and  working- 
women  ;  and  here  I  have  before  me  a  table  in  which 
the  employed  and  the  employers  are  quoted  side  by 
side  (p.  X.).  According  to  returns  made  by  employ- 
ers for  more  than  250,000  employes,  the  average  of 
yearly  wages  for  the  State  is  $413.  According  to 
returns  made  by  the  employed,  this  average  is  8418, 
slightly  above  the  estimate  made  by  the  employers 
themselves.  The  coincidence  of  these  two  estimates 
is  one  of  the  most  striking  things  in  this  almost 
mathematically  exact  work  of  the  honored  chief  of 
your  Labor  Bureau,  Col.  Wright.  Each  set  of  these 
returns  was  made  distinct  from  the  other ;  and  both 
refer  to  the  same  period,  the  year  ending  May  1, 
1875. 


SEX  m  INDUSTRY.  161 

But  I  turn  now  to  a  few  details  to  convince  you 
that  the  averages  have  not  been  manipulated.  Here, 
for  instance,  is  grand  old  Middlesex  County,  and  I 
find  that  the  average  daily  wages  of  woman  in  1875, 
in  that  favored  tract  of  Massachusetts,  were  82 
cents ;  that  the  number  of  days  she  was  employed, 
on  the  average,  was  270 ;  and  that  the  annual  cost  of 
her  living  was  reduced  to  -$178.82.  I  turn  to  Hamp- 
shire County,  in  the  middle  region  of  the  Connecticut 
Valley  in  Massachusetts,  and  find  that  the  average 
daily  wages  of  woman  was  78  cents.  She  was  em- 
ployed there  260  days  in  the  year.  The  cost  of  liv- 
ing was  reduced  to  $169.  I  turn  to  Hampden  County, 
on  the  fat  meadows  of  the  lower  Connecticut  Valley 
in  this  State,  and  find  woman  earning  only  90  cents 
on  the  average,  and  employed  only  172  days  in  a 
year,  and  the  cost  of  her  living  reduced  to  $192.  I 
turn  to  Essex  County,  the  north-east  county  of  this 
Commonwealth,  and  find  the  average  daily  earnings 
of  woman  89  cents  onlj.  She  was  employed  257 
days  of  the  year,  and  the  cost  of  her  living  was 
reduced  to  $203.  I  turn  to  Berkshire  County,  on  the 
hills  that  look  into  the  Hudson  Valley,  and  find 
woman's  average  earnings  72  cents  only.  She  was 
employed  266  days,  and  the  cost  of  her  living  was 
reduced  to  $180.82.  I  turn  to  Barnstable  County, 
which  you  say,  by  being  thrown  in  with  the  general 
estimate  reduces  the  average,  and  I  find  that  there 
the  daily  earnings  of  woman  were  66  cents,  that  she 
was  employed  204  days,  and  that  the  cost  of  living 
was  $130.     I  turn  to  Suffolk  County,  and  find  the 


162  LABOE. 

average  earnings  71  cents ;  the  number  of  days,  298 ; 
and  the  cost  of  living,  $184  only. 

It  is  truly  astounding  to  me  to  find  public  sen- 
timent slumbering  over  facts  like  these,  with  the 
additional  certainty  before  it  that  New  England  is  a 
factory,  and  is  likely  to  be  so  more  and  more. 

The  centre  of  territory  in  Massachusetts  is  within 
the  limits  of  Worcester,  on  the  easterly  side,  near 
Lake  Quinsigamond.  But  where  is  the  centre  of 
population  ?  Is  it  Framingham  ?  Is  it  Lake  Cochit- 
uate?  The  north  and  south  line  which  cuts  the 
population  of  Massachusetts  in  halves  passes  easterly 
of  a  point  midway  between  Harvard  University  and 
the  West  Boston  Bridge.  The  east  and  west  line 
dividing  the  population  into  equal  portions  passes 
through  the  South  Boston  end  of  the  Federal-street 
bridge.  The  two  lines  intersect  at  a  point  not  two 
miles  west  of  the  State  House.  This,  according  to 
the  State  documents,  was  the  centre  of  population  in 
1865.  (^Abstract  of  the  Cenms  of  18G5,  with  Remarks 
on  the  Same^  and  Supplementary  Tables,  prepared 
under  the  direction  of  Oliver  Warner,  Secretary  of 
the  Commonwealth,  p.  274.)  The  centralization  of 
wealth  is  even  more  remarkable  than  that  of  the 
population.  The  census  everywhere  reveals  the  fact 
that,  through  the  aid  of  the  wonderful  increase  of 
all  means  of  intercommunication,  the  change  which  is 
constantly  giving  greater  and  greater  power  to  cities, 
tliis  added  weight  of  the  Atlantic  slope  of  the  State, 
is  chiefly  an  effect  of  the  extraordinary  growth  of  the 
manufacturing  centres  of  Eastern  Massachusetts.     Of 


SEX   IN  INDUSTRY.  163 

these,  Boston  itself  is  one.  I  must  be  pardoned  for 
considering  it  a  suggestive  circumstance,  that,  in  spite 
of  the  remarkable  advances  of  Central  and  Western 
Massachusetts,  the  circumscribing  line  drawn  from 
the  State  House,  and  containing  half  the  population 
of  the  Commonwealth,  has  contracted  its  radius  ten 
miles  in  fifty  years.  All  Eastern  Massachusetts  is  a 
factory.  In  1865  more  than  one-half  of  the  popula- 
tion of  Massachusetts,  seven-tenths  of  the  personal 
property,  and  two-thirds  of  the  real  estate,  were  sit- 
uated within  twenty-five  miles  of  the  State  House  at 
Boston !  (Ibid.,  p.  275.)  In  the  five  years  since 
these  astonishing  estimates  were  made,  Lynn  has  in- 
creased thirty-six  per  cent  in  population, .  Lawrence 
thirty-two,  Lowell  tliirty-one,  Haverhill  nineteen,  and 
Fall  River  forty. 

Here  is  the  incoming  of  an  Atlantic  tide.  It  is 
the  roar  of  the  industrial  conditions  of  Old  England 
coming  into  New  England.  I  have  lived  for  months 
within  hearing  of  the  roar  of  the  ocean,  and  have 
looked  daily  upon  the  coming-in  of  the  vast  tides. 
It  is  little  to  say  that  I  profess  to  have '  lived  also 
within  hearing  of  the  roar  of  the  human  ocean  which 
beats  on  the  Atlantic  slope  of  New  England,  and  to 
have  looked  frequently  upon  the  coming-in  of  these 
vast  tides.  Imagine  the  magnificent  coast-line  from 
Newfoundland  to  New  York  beaten  in  all  its  coves 
and  headlands  by  incoming  Atlantic  waves.  A  feeble 
occupation  this,  compared  with  imagining  the  same 
coast  beaten  as  it  is,  in  all  its  coves  and  headlands, 
and  likely  to  be  beaten  more  and  more  furiously  as 


164  LABOE. 

the  years  pass,  by  these  incoming  human  tides,  and 
more  and  more  complicated  industrial  conditions. 
Not  discuss  those  conditions !  Not  secure  the  best 
life  that  can  be  secured  for  the  millions  whose  future 
is  now  being  largely  determined  by  the  precedents 
which  are  to  be  set  in  the  period  of  transition  New 
England  is  passing !  Not  turn  public  discussion  and 
legislation  early  to  the  solution  of  problems  more 
vital  than  any  others  in  the  secular  life  of  New  Eng- 
land, and  sure  to  become  more  and  more  complicated 
as  the  tides  rise  higher  !  He  who  says  this  is  likely 
to  be  as  little  regarded  as  the  rattling  of  rushes 
before  the  coming-in  of  an  Atlantic  surge. 

Discussing  sex  in  industry,  I  have  placed  in  con- 
trast the  condition  of  working-men  and  that  of  work- 
ing-women in  the  most  fortunate  commonwealth  of 
the  globe,  to  show  you  what  happens  in  favorable  con- 
ditions. What  if  I  were  to  go  to  Prussia  ?  What  if 
I  were  to  go  to  England?  My  topic  touches  the 
whole  range  of  capital  and  labor  from  the  Ural  Moun- 
tains to  the  Pacific  seas ;  and  I  am  here  speaking  at  a 
great  disadvantage  by  the  use  of  Massachusetts  sta- 
tistics. I  must  employ  them,  if  I  am  to  speak  defi- 
nitely, for  they  are  the  only  good  statistics  of  this 
kind  in  the  world.  So  has  European  sentiment,  so 
has  even  English  sentiment,  slumbered  over  tliis  topic, 
that  to-day  you  cannot  find  authority  for  making 
statements  as  definite  as  these  concerning  the  work- 
ing men  and  women  of  Prussia  and  of  England. 
There  is  now  in  circulation  a  memorial  to  Congress 
and  the  President,  asking  that  statistics  like  these 


SEX  IN  INDUSTRY.  165 

be  given  us  in  the  next  national  census,  for  all  the 
United  States;  and  may  God  give  success  to  that 
petition !     [Applause.] 

3.  It  is  evident  from  these  contrasted  propositions, 
that  unsupported  and  unmarried  women  are  often 
so  illy  paid  that  with  ten  hours'  labor  a  day  they 
barely  escape  starvation,  and  do  not  escape  illness 
and  debt,  and  can  lay  up  nothing  for  marriage,  or 
for  seasons  when  employment  is  not  obtainable. 

4.  In  cases  where  female  labor  earns  six  dollars, 
ten  dollars,  or  sometimes  fifteen  dollars,  a  week,  it  is 
from  sixteen  to  thirty-four  weeks  of  the  year  only 
that  these  wages  are  earned. 

It  never  will  happen  to  you  to  forget  the  distinc- 
tion between  fluctuating  and  uninterrupted  indus- 
tries if  you  have  had  a  little  experience  in  seeking 
employment.  A  good  place  obtained  is  not  always 
kept  for  a  year.  Indeed,  the  uncertainty  of  employ- 
ment is  one  of  the  things  most  discouraging  to  female 
labor.  You  know  that  woman  is  not  man's  equal, 
quite,  in  pushing  her  own  interests  among  rough 
people.  She  must  go  about,  often  alone,  and  seek 
occupation,  and  there  is  not  everywhere  a  Young 
"Women's  Christian  Association  to  help  her  into  busi- 
ness. Even  if  such  an  association  exists,  it  cannot 
always  supply  what  is  wanted.  A  woman,  a  young 
woman,  a  girl,  must  get  her  own  place  often  and 
again  ;  and,  when  she  has  obtained  it,  she  may  be  in 
some  fine  industry  where  the  fashions  change,  and 
where,  in  less  than  half  a  year,  a  new  set  of  fashions 
come  in,  and  the  trade  has  to  wait  for  orders.     Many 


166  LABOR. 

of  our  great  industries  can  accumulate  stock,  and 
sell  it  without  great  risk.  Iron-ore  is  always  worth 
something ;  cotton  cloth  does  not  go  out  of  fashion. 
But  your  fine  bonnets,  your  fine  embroidery,  your 
ready-made  clothing,  your  finest  articles  of  female 
apparel,  change  their  fashions,  and  cannot  be  safely 
accumulated  in  advance.  They  are  produced  in,  and 
they  produce,  the  fluctuating  industries.  If  it  is  your 
business,  as  it  is  mine,  to  study  the  political  economy 
of  cities,  you  will  fasten  attention  upon  the  distinc- 
tion between  the  fluctuating  and  the  uninterrupted 
industries  as  explaining  a  large  amount  of  the  distress 
which  comes  upon  female  operatives  in  our  great 
towns.  Their  business  is  not  steady.  When  manu- 
facturers tell  you  that  ten  dollars  and  fifteen  dollars 
a  week  are  paid  to  the  best  female  operative,  you 
must  ask  how  many  weeks  a  year  these  wages  are 
received.  Here  I  have  statistics  which  show  in  detail 
that  very  considerable  sums  must  be  earned  in  some 
way  outside  of  factory-work,  if  female  operatives  in 
fluctuating  trades  are  to  make  the  year's  ends  meet. 
That  matter  has  been  investigated  in  this  State.  It 
is  fully  ascertained  that  in  most  cases,  unless  these 
operatives  wlio  arc  thrown  out  of  employment  by  the 
lulls  in  a  fluctuating  industry  get  something  else  to 
do,  they  cannot  support  themselves,  even  at  the  low 
average  cost  of  living.  If  they  do  not  obtain  some 
other  employment,  they  suffer,  or  fall  into  debt,  and 
may  approach  starvation,  because  in  these  brisk 
periods  it  is  impossible  to  earn  enough  to  keep  body 
and  soul  together  through  the  whole  year. 


SEX  IN  INDUSTRY.  167 

Let  it  be  understood  constantly  that  I  do  not 
assail  manufacturers  as  a  class.  I  am  utterly  without 
partisan  feeling  concerning  capital  and  labor.  But 
there  are  establishments  in  this  city  where  young 
women  are  sometimes  discharged  in  a  body,  and  un- 
skilled young  women  brought  in  because  they  can  be 
had  cheaper.  Skilled  female  operatives  who  have 
supported  themselves  during  the  time  when  they 
were  learning  a  trade  are  apt  to  demand  higher 
wages ;  but  some  machines  can  be  run  by  compara- 
tively unskilled  persons ;  light  work  can  be  done  by 
girls ;  and  it  happens  in  third  and  fourth  rate  fac- 
tories, even  under  the  shadow  of  that  State  House, 
that  skilled  girls  are  dropped  because  their  wages 
are  too  high,  and  unskilled  brought  in,  so  that  these 
short  seasons  are  thus  further  shortened. 

Every  day  there  come  to  me,  in  my  study  of  this 
theme,  illustrations  of  the  physical  limitations  of 
women.  You  know  that  in  many  manufacturing 
establishments  a  girl  must  be  on  her  feet  from  morn- 
ing to  night.  Indeed,  in  some  shops  of  retail  busi- 
ness, the  female  clerks  must  be  on  their  feet  most  of 
the  time.  It  is  against  the  rule  to  sit  down  in  some 
establishments.  I  read  in  this  document  lying  in 
that  chair  (^Report  of  Labor  Bureau  for  1871,  p.  205), 
printed  under  official  authority,  of  a  girl  in  this  city 
who  was  kept  measuring  cotton  cloth  from  morning 
till  night,  and  at  last  dropped  in  a  fainting-fit.  "  It 
was  three-quarters  of  an  hour  before  the  girl  was 
able  to  resume  her  work,  and  for  this  loss  of  time 
her  employer  deducted  a  quarter  of  a  day's  wages." 


168  LABOR. 

6.  During  the  acquisition  of  skill  in  any  trade,  the 
working-girl  must  usually  support  herself. 

6.  She  is  required  by  public  law  to  be  at  school 
until  she  is  fifteen,  and  is  graduated  without  training 
in  any  industrial  employment. 

7.  Developing-schools  and  school-shops  should  be 
open  to  girls  as  well  as  boys. 

8.  But  the  girl  is  always  less  incited  by  self- 
interest  than  the  boy  to  learn  a  trade ;  for  at  mar- 
riage she  expects,  as  the  boy  does  not,  to  make  occu- 
pation conform  to  that  of  the  person  married. 

Flora  McFlimsey,  who  has  nothing  to  wear,  is  only 
a  little  more  foolish  and  criminal  than  Bridget,  if 
the  latter  is  allowed  by  her  own  pride  to  cast  herself 
upon  the  world  without  knowing  how  to  do  any 
thing.  But  it  is  not  the  pride  of  Flora  McFlimsey 
that  is  chiefly  to  blame,  but  our  own  omission  of 
the  proper  training  of  girls  to  industry. 

We  take  the  boy  and  the  girl  from  the  father  and 
mother  up  to  the  age  of  fifteen,  and  insist  that  the 
child  shall  be  at  school ;  and  then  we  give  back  both 
BO  poorly  educated  that  they  find  little  or  nothing  to 
do,  and,  if  they  were  left  alone,  would  not  have 
much  to  wear.  You  approved  here,  the  other  day, 
my  proposition,  when  it  was  asserted  that  school- 
shops  and  the  developing-school  are  a  proper  crown 
for  cliildren's  riglits  in  the  trades.  Surely  if  they 
are  a  proper  crown  for  boys'  rights,  they  are  for 
girls' ;  and  yet  I  recognize  the  fact  constantly  that 
the  girl  cannot  be  helped  as  much  as  the  boy. 
She  never  will  be  as  enthusiastic  as  a  boy  in  learn- 


SEX  IN  rNDUSTEY.  169 

ing  a  trade,  simply  because  she  does  not  expect  to  be 
independent  in  its  practice.  Nevertheless  it  is  a 
public  shame  for  us  to  send  out  of  common  schools 
young  girls  above  all  manual  labor,  and  fit  only  for 
the  drawing-room,  and  utterly  unskilled  in  any  thing 
that  would  bring  them  a  dollar.  [Applause.]  I 
would  have  the  girl  so  brought  up  in  school,  that 
when  she  leaves  it  she  may  not  be  above  manual 
occupation,  and  may  not  be  so  unskilled  as  to  be 
unworthy  of  employment.     [Applause.] 

9.  Woman  has  in  general  more  pride  of  appear- 
ance than  man,  and,  if  in  poor  dress,  is  less  easily 
than  man  drawn  into  the  evening-school,  the  lecture- 
room,  and  the  church. 

Discussing  the  condition  of  thousands  now  in  New 
England,  and  keeping  before  you  the  future  pros- 
pects of  far  larger  numbers  yet  to  arrive  here  on  the 
shore  of  being,  I  am  endeavoring  to  state  in  logical 
order  the  circumstances  which  determine  the  condi- 
tion of  the  working-girl  and  working-woman  in 
manufacturing  populations. 

10.  In  the  working-room,  the  girl  cannot  always 
choose  her  companions.  In  the  fluctuating  indus- 
tries, the  door  through  which  operatives  are  admitted 
to  work-rooms  is  not  a  moral  sieve. 

11.  The  perils  of  work-rooms  where  unsifted, 
fluctuating,  and  floating  populations  are  crowded 
together  under  careless  overseers  will  often  be  great 
for  young  men  and  boys,  and  especially  great  for 
women,  young  women  and  girls,  who  constitute  more 
than  half  of  average  operative  populations. 


170  LABOR. 

12.  A  floating  is  usually  a  more  or  less  homeless 
population,  and  so  is  less  under  the  influence  of 
family  police  than  a  stationary  population. 

13.  Neither  boarding-houses  nor  churches  can  do 
as  much  for  a  floating  as  for  a  resident  population. 

What  do  I  want?  Perhaps  you  will  allow  me  to 
assert  that  if  I  had  a  sister  I  should  be  very  reluc- 
tant to  put  her  into  a  room,  say  twenty  by  thirty 
feet  square,  filled  with  floating  operatives  in  a  fluctu- 
ating trade.  Why  should  I  be  thus  reluctant  ?  Be- 
cause I  have  seen  repeatedly  in  this  Commonwealth 
three,  four,  or  five  young  women  in  a  room  with  fif- 
teen or  twenty  men,  and  have  had  the  best  reason  to 
know  that,  as  the  machinery  did  not  make  noise 
enough  to  prevent  conversation,  the  effect  of  pro- 
fanity and  utterly  vile  talk  was  as  demoralizing  and 
poisonous  as  might  naturally  be  expected.  If  there 
be  an  evil  girl  there,  she  may  do  immense  harm.  If 
I  had  a  son,  I  should  not  like  to  place  him  in  that 
room.  I  have  talked  with  riiany  manufacturers  on 
this  theme,  and  never  met  a  man  of  the  first  rank, 
managing  liLs  business  in  the  Christian  way,  who  did 
not  say  that  this  is  an  evil,  and  can  easily  be  avoided. 
It  can  be  diminished  by  securing  fair  oversight  of  the 
rooms.  It  is  not  always  necessary  to  mingle  the 
sexes ;  perhaps  sometimes  it  must  be  done,  but  most 
manufacturers  tell  me  that  there  can  be  a  clean  S3's- 
tem  of  managing  these  work-rooms.  I  know  how 
many  exigencies  arise  in  associated  toil,  and  liow  you 
cannot  make  up  what  is  called  a  team  in  certain  pro- 
cesses of  industry,  without  mingling  female  and  male 


SEX  IN  INDUSTRY.  171 

labor ;  but  in  general  there  may  be  two  sets  of  work- 
rooms, and  such  oversight  that  this  difficulty  may  be 
immensely  lessened. 

When  I  go  to  physicians  in  manufacturing  towns, 
and  ask  what  is  the  moral  effect  of  careless  factory- 
arrangements,  I  obtain  replies  that  cannot  be  made 
public.  Go  to  the  best  factory-physicians  in  New 
England,  where  the  floating  populations  are  largest, 
—  I  am  weighing  all  my  words,  —  and  they  will  tell 
you  that  some  of  the  perils  notorious  in  seaport 
towns  are  likely  to  arise  in  every  quarter  where  thou- 
sands of  people  float  in  and  float  out  without  homes, 
and  are  massed  face  to  face  in  these  work-rooms  of 
the  factories  of  the  fluctuating  trades. 

Ominous  enough  in  itself,  the  historic  reputation 
of  congregated  labor  is  yet  more  ominous  from 
the  most  important  circumstances  that  many  vast 
branches  of  manufactures  belong  to  the  fluctuating 
rather  than  to  the  uninterrupted  industries,  and 
must,  on  that  account,  give  rise  in  large  towns  to 
large  fluctuating  populations.  The  perils  of  congre- 
gated labor  in  large  towns  are  large  enough  ;  but  the 
perils  of  congregated  labor  in  large  towns  with  large 
floating  populations  have  an  established  name  that 
makes  it  impossible  to  speak  too  strongly  of  the 
worth  of  family  life  as  a  moral  police  in  society. 

He  who  comes  home  at  night  to  a  circle  that  know 
him  well,  and  watch  his  daily  course,  has  a  kind  of 
daily  appearance  to  make  before  a  moral  tribunal. 
The  bliss  of  the  home  affections  is  a  shield  from  vice, 
not  only  because  it  is  bliss,  but  because  it  makes  any 


172  LABOE. 

conduct  that  needs  concealment  from  the  moral  tri- 
bunal of  the  most  intimate  circle  as  painful  as  the 
bliss  of  ingenuousness  and  trust  is  great. 

From  side  to  side  of  the  globe,  every  place  where 
a  large  floating  population  congregates  is  found  to  be 
a  stormy  moral  coast.  In  face  of  universal  experi- 
ence I  need  not  pause  to  prove  the  moral  perils  of 
homelessness.  Those  centres  in  New  England  where 
large  floating  populations  gather  will  always  be  found 
to  exhibit  peculiar  moral  perils. 

All  the  more  to  he  honored  and  trusted  for  their 
endurance  of  the  breakers,  is  that  percentage  of  most 
worthy  people  to  be  found  in  evert/  floating  population. 
Not  only  am  I  aware  of  the  existence  of  hundreds  of 
excellent  people  in  floating  populations,  but  also  of  the 
duty  of  receiving  these  with  especial  cordiality  to  our 
hearts  and  homes.  But  in  a  large  town  there  is  in  a 
floating  population  not  only  an  intermixture  of  the 
thoughtless  and  giddy  and  falling,  but  further  down, 
and  most  to  be  feared,  a  percentage  of  the  thoroughly 
bad.  Men  and  women  who  have  the  worst  reasons 
for  leading  a  floating  life  need  not  be  many  in  any 
floating  population,  to  do  immense  mischief.  New 
England  is  not  so  saintly  in  her  cities  that  she  can 
afford  to  forget  that  the  exigencies  of  trade  and  the 
wonderful  growth  of  means  of  intercommunication 
have  brought  into  some  of  her  inland  large  towns 
evils  thoroughly  analogous  to  the  old  and  traditional 
evils  of  seaports.  All  kinds  of  people  gather  in  fluc- 
tuating industries.  In  a  large  city,  in  a  floating  pop- 
ulation, it  is  not  incautious  to  ask,  not  everv  tenth 


SEX  IN  INDUSTRY.  173 

man,  but  every  tenth  man  who  pretends  to  a  peculiar 
interest  in  your  affairs,  "  Have  you  ever  been  in 
jail  ?  "  Every  great  city  is  a  collection  of  camps. 
He  who  knows  one  stratum  of  the  society  only,  does 
not  know  the  city.  He  who  knows  dissipated  Paris 
does  not  know  Paris,  but  only  a  particular  camp  in 
Paris.  So  of  New  York  and  London  and  Berlin,  and 
every  lesser  town  in  its  proportion.  The  moral  perils 
of  homelessness,  added  to  the  perils  of  this  bad  per- 
centage from  outside,  put  the  solemn  duty  upon  the 
resident  population  of  these  stormy  moral  coasts,  to 
throw  the  moral  light-houses  of  church,  library,  and 
school,  but  especially  the  light-houses  of  right  indus- 
trial arrangements,  far  out  upon  the  edges  of  the 
reefs. 

I  have  not  suffered  myself  to  take  up  a  theme  so 
complicated  and  weighty  without  an  extended  and 
most  serious  attention  to  it,  not  as  exhibited  in  books 
merely,  but  as  seen  in  the  swarming  life  of  manufac- 
turing-towns ;  not  as  seen  in  the  opinions  of  this 
class  of  men  or  of  that,  but  as  seen  by  men  who  have 
the  most  different  interests  involved  concerning  it, 
and  the  most  widely  separated  points  of  view.  I 
have  been  through  more  than  a  few  of  your  factories. 
I  have  conversed  with  a  large  number  of  your  lead- 
ing manufacturers.  I  have  consulted  carefully  with 
many  working-men. 

14.  The  proposition  I  defend  is,  that  the  working- 
class  of  the  manufacturing  centres  of  New  England 
have  a  right  to  ask  of  the  employing  class  that  the 
moral  perils  of  the  work-rooms  under  the  factory  sys- 


174  LABOR. 

tern  shall  be  made  for  themselves  and  for  their  chil- 
dren as  few  and  small  as  possible. 

There  is  a  foul  and  there  is  a  clean  system  of  work- 
room management  in  factories  engaged  in  fluctuating 
industries,  and  likely  to  have  many  changeable  opera- 
tives. To  speak  at  once  to  the  point,  there  are  work- 
rooms in  which  men  and  women,  boys  and  girls, 
gathered  in  large  part  at  random  out  of  a  floating 
population,  are  sandwiched  together  like  herrings  in 
a  box  ;  and,  uninterrupted  by  the  noise  of  machinery, 
it  is  not  infrequently  tobacco-smoke,  profanity,  and 
foul  talk  from  morning  to  night !  I  am  not  speaking 
of  cotton-factories,  nor  of  establishments  in  which 
the  noise  of  machinery  prevents  free  conversation 
between  operatives.  But  in  factories  of  many  other 
kinds  it  is  notoriously  easy  for  a  few  foul  mouths, 
not  hard  to  be  found  in  a  floating  population,  to  cor- 
rupt a  whole  room.  The  herring-box  system  I  call  a 
foul  system. 

Foul  mouths  in  factories  are  so  well  known  that 
the  expression  is  almost  a  proverb.  There  are  nu- 
merous and  most  honorable  exceptions,  especially  in 
the  factories  managed  on  the  clean  system ;  but  you 
would  tliink  me  ill  acquainted  with  tlie  most  essen- 
tial parts  of  the  subject  I  discuss,  if  I  did  not  refer 
to  wliat  the  best  class  of  working-men  and  working- 
women  speak  of  to  me  at  every  street-corner. 

I  have  sometimes  seen  four  or  five  young  women 
crowded  into  the  same  room  with  twenty-five  or  thir- 
ty men  ;  or  three  working  thus ;  or  two,  or  one.  I  do 
not  assert  that  a  majority  of  mouths  are  foul  in  the 


SEX   IN   INDUSTRY.  175 

factories ;  but  I  deliberately  make  myself  responsible 
for  the  public  assertion  that  a  father  who  wishes  the 
welfare  of  his  daughter  cannot  be  expected  to  put 
her  into  factory-life  in  a  large  proportion  of  the 
work-rooms  in  the  fluctuating  trades.  There  is  no 
saying  more  common  among  operatives  than  that  a 
father  does  not  like  to  put  his  daughter  or  son  into 
many  of  the  factories.  The  common  and  permanent 
opinion  as  to  what  the  answer  would  be  to  the  ques- 
tion, Would  you  put  your  own  daughter  into  work- 
rooms managed  on  such  a  system  ?  is  a  test  of  the 
character  of  that  system.  A  management  in  respect 
to  which  the  answer  to  this  question  is  notoriously 
and  always  "  No,"  I  call  a  foul  system.  Perhaps  I 
have  put  more  than  a  hundred  times  this  question,  or 
its  equivalent,  and  have  been  answered  invariably  in 
exactly  these  words,  or  their  equivalent :  "  Before 
putting  my  daughter  into  work-rooms  managed  on 
that  system,  I  would  see  her  in  some  other  place 
work  her  fingers  to  the  bone."  This  is  a  terrible 
condemnation  of  a  system  wholly  unnecessary  in 
itself,  affecting  here  and  elsewhere  a  vast  operative 
population,  and  likely  to  affect  a  population  larger 
and  larger. 

On  the  other  hand,  as  the  example  of  many  of  the 
largest  factories  abundantly  proves,  there  is  a  clean 
system  of  work-room  management  in  the  fluctuating 
industries.  In  one  of  the  best  factories  within  a 
dozen  miles  of  this  platform,  I  have  seen  the  sexes 
in  separate  rooms  everywhere  from  basement  to  roof. 
Where  this  arrangement  is  made,  and  care  is  taken 


176  LABOR. 

to  appoint  men  of  irreproachable  character  to  over- 
see the  work-rooms  of  the  men,  and  women  of  irre- 
proachable character  to  oversee  the  work-rooms  of 
the  women,  the  answer  to  the  test  question  is  differ- 
ent. I  have  information  as  to  single  rooms  in  which 
there  is  every  reason  to  believe  tlie  moral  condition 
is  good,  because  care  has  been  taken  as  to  the  moral 
character  of  overseers ;  and  as  to  others,  in  which 
there  is  every  reason  to  believe  the  moral  character 
is  bad,  because  there  has  been  carelessness  as  to  the 
moral  character  of  overseers. 

When  the  character  of  a  floating  population,  the 
effect  of  the  floating  on  the  resident  population,  the 
inflammability  of  human  nature,  the  immense  numbers 
likely  to  be  affected  by  the  varied  influences  of  the 
work-room  arrangements,  are  kept  in  view,  all  that 
can  be  said  in  respect  to  the  foul  system  is  simply 
that  capitalists  and  manufacturers  ought  to  have 
sense  enough  not  to  adopt  it.  One  hardly  feels  like 
offering  arguments  in  the  case.  It  is,  however,  as  a 
temporary  arrangement,  though  not  as  a  permanent, 
slightly  cheaper  to  manage  on  the  careless  system 
than  on  the  careful.  There  is,  too,  now  and  then,  a 
man  of  theory,  or  some 

"  Lily-handed,  snow-banded,  dilettante  " 

critic,  knowing  nothing  of  manufactures,  who,  over- 
looking the  immense  distinctions  between  the  influ- 
ences of  the  sexes  on  each  other  in  the  parlors  of 
good  society,  or  in  a  high  school,  for  example,  and 
their  influences  on  each  other  in  these  rooms,  filled 


SEX  IN  INDUSTRY.  177 

from  a  floating  population  without  any  careful  sifting 
of  character  at  the  doors,  judges  on  general  principles, 
without  having  examined  the  case  in  actual  life,  that 
the  mingling  of  the  sexes  in  these  work-rooms  from 
morning  to  night  may  be  an  excellent  thing.  And 
there  are  others,  who,  judging  from  some  exceptional 
instance  or  instances,  where  the  character  of  those 
engaged  in  particular  rooms  has  been  particularly 
good,  and  the  overseers  men  of  irreproachable  char- 
acter, and  the  sexes  mingled  to  apparent  advantage, 
think  that  this  is  the  best  general  rule  for  the  large 
floating  populations  of  the  manufacturing  centres  of 
fluctuating  trades,  present  and  future,  in  New  Eng- 
land and  elsewhere. 

It  is  found  by  experience  that  it  is  in  the  work- 
rooms that  a  young  woman  coming  into  the  fluctuat- 
ing trades,  and  not  resisting  —  as,  thank  God,  hun- 
dreds and  thousands  do  resist  —  the  morally  unheal th- 
ful  influences,  loses  that  natural  shyness  and  modesty 
which  are  her  charm,  and  gradually  acquires  a  repul- 
sive boldness.  Suppose  that  a  young  woman  falls 
into  both  an  illy-regulated  boarding-house  and  a  room 
of  unhealthful  moral  conditions  in  a  factory.  Which 
will  do  the  more  harm  ?  Which  will  begin  the  harm  ? 
Where  will  the  first  indentation  of  ill  occur  ?  Evi- 
dently she  can  choose  her  companions,  to  a  great 
extent,  in  the  boarding-house ;  and,  if  she  is  of  high 
principle,  will  choose  the  best  she  can.  But  she 
cannot  choose  her  company  in  the  work-room.  She 
must  there  breathe  the  atmosphere  of  the  company 
eight  or  ten  hours  a  day.    She  may,  in  a  large  meas- 


178  LABOB. 

ure,  choose  her  own  company  in  the  former,  except 
for  perhaps  an  hour  a  day.  Further  on  in  the  his- 
tory of  deterioration,  the  illy-regulated  boarding- 
house  and  the  street-school  may  strip  the  flesh  from 
the  peach,  but  the  down  of  the  peach  was  brushed 
away  in  the  work-rooms.  This  is  found  to  be  the 
history  of  the  case  in  tracing  almost  any  individual 
example  of  deterioration. 

The  chances  in  any  fluctuating  trade  in  a  large 
town  are  extraordinarily  great  that  bad  men  and  bad 
women  will  occasionally  be  found  in  the  work-rooms ; 
and  these  chances  arise  from  the  four  circumstances, 
(1)  that  the  door  of  entrance  to  the  work-rooms  is 
not,  and,  on  account  of  the  number  of  changeable 
operatives,  is  not  likely  soon  to  be  made,  a  moral  sift- 
ing-machine ;  (2)  that  the  industry  is  likely  to  have 
each  year  two  brisk  and  often  painfully  hurried 
periods,  and  two  of  comparative  inactivity ;  (3)  that 
the  percentage  of  operatives  changeable  within  the 
year  is  large  on  account  of  these  fluctuations,  and 
is  often  estimated  to  be  thirty-three  per  cent  of  the 
whole  number;  (4)  that,  on  account  of  the  fluc- 
tuations of  the  industry,  the  floating  population  is 
large,  and  it  is  out  of  this  population,  itself  not 
sifted,  that  operatives,  in  the  hurried  periods  of  work, 
are  taken  into  the  work-rooms  through  a  door  that  is 
not  a  sieve. 

Already  New  England  has  many  cities  with  a 
population  of  five  or  seven  or  ten  thousand  swirling 
in  or  out  of  each  of  them,  according  as  business  is 
at  its  brisk  period  or  at  its  lulls.     How  large  will  that 


SEX  IN  INDUSTEY.  179 

population  be  in  fifty  years  ?  How  large  in  a  hun- 
dred ?  I  am  in  New  England  but  for  a  moment ;  but 
I  profess  to  care  enough  for  it  to  keep  fifty  and  a 
hundred  years  of  its  future  in  view,  and  to  put  at 
hazard  any  popularity  I  may  or  might  have,  by  ask- 
ing you  to  meet,  as  men,  the  complicated  problems  of 
your  vast  industries.  Who  is  the  man,  and  where  is 
the  man,  who  will  say  that  you  can  have  a  tide  of 
ten  or  fifteen  thousand  people  swirling  in  and  out  of 
a  city  like  this,  and  no  moral  perils  arise,  no  sedi- 
ment be  stirred,  no  grave  responsibilities  laid  upon 
those  whose  business  is  the  flood-gate  through  which 
these  tides  must  mingle  with  the  other  tides  of  the 
population  ? 

At  the  best,  the  filter  that  you  can  provide  for  the 
tides  will  be  ineffective  enough ;  but  to  say  that  there 
is  need  of  no  filter,  that  you  may  safely  take  the 
chances  of  careless  factory  arrangements  being  con- 
tinued, is  to  say  what  time  will  disprove.  If  the 
present  careless  factory  arrangements  are  continued 
fifty  years,  your  floating  populations  in  many  manu- 
facturing centres  will  be  full  of  moral  ulcers.  Laz- 
arus will  lie  at  the  gate  of  Dives  in  New  England, 
and  he  will  be  full  of  sores.  I  throw  my  whole 
weight  into  the  scale  against  the  continuance  of  these 
careless  arrangements.  /  know  that  the  American 
Lazarus  may  to-morrow  or  in  the  next  generation 
become  a  Dives,  as  the  European  may  not ;  hut,  in  spite 
of  American  institutions,  the  day  is  coming,  unless  fac- 
tory-life is  studied  and  adjusted  most  carefully,  when 
here  and  throughout  New  England,  of  which  the  whole 


180  LABOB. 

Atlantic  slope  is  a  factory^  Lazarus  will  lie  at  the  gate 
of  Dives. 

Why  discuss  this  subject  publicly  ?  Because  only 
a  powerful  public  sentiment  will  correct  the  evil.  In 
what  method  will  public  sentiment  aid  ?  It  is  not 
diflBcult  to  point  out  the  steps.  Let  it  be  made  so- 
cially as  unpopular  for  a  man  to  manage  a  factory 
on  a  careless  system,  and  mutilate  souls,  as  to  manage 
a  railway  on  a  careless  system,  and  mutilate  bodies. 
Then  the  better  class  of  men  will  be  influenced.  Let 
a  majority,  thus  gradually  won,  set  right  fashions, 
and  even  the  money-gripes,  and  men  lower  down, 
will  be  reached.  Business  is  a  regiment.  For  indus- 
trial reasons  men  must  keep  step  with  each  other  in 
it.  Let  a  majority  of  the  board  of  trade  of  any  city 
set  right  business  fashions,  and  the  inferior  men  who 
care  only  for  money  are  usually  brought  sooner  or 
later  to  respect  the  step  of  the  regiment. 

If  inks  and  silks  must  be  packed  together,  they 
ought  to  travel  in  separate  cases.     [Applause.] 

15.  Under  this  combination  of  industrial  and  moral 
perils,  the  working-girl  must  bear  also  the  perils  to 
health  arising  from  the  physical  limitations  of  wom- 
an's nature. 

16.  The  statistics  of  infamy  prove  that  most  fallen 
women  have  been  tempted  to  their  fall  by  their 
poverty. 

It  is  impossible  to  deny  that  one  of  the  forces 
which  push  women  toward  the  pit  of  physical 
deatli,  and  also  toward  that  of  moral  death,  is  low 
wages.    [Applause.]    I  am  not  alono  in  that  opinion. 


SEX  m   INDUSTBY.  181 

It  is  the  opinion  of  your  Labor  Bureau.  It  is  the 
opinion  of  the  best  politicians  in  this  State.  It  is 
the  opinion  of  the  soundest  parts  of  our  industrial 
populations.  It  is  the  opinion  of  many  a  pastor  in  a 
manufacturing  town.  For  evident  reasons  these  sub- 
jects cannot  well  be  discussed  in  detail  in  the  pulpit 
without  dividing  churches.  This  fact  does  not  pre- 
vent preachers  from  studying  them  thoroughly,  dis- 
cussing them  in  private,  and  wielding  all  the  appara- 
tus of  the  church  fitly  to' save  floating  populations. 
Nothing  brings  the  operative  class  to  church  more 
quickly  than  some  discussion  there  of  their  interests. 
If  topics  like  these  are  not  to  be  taken  up  often  in 
the  pulpit,  they  can  in  many  churches  at  least  occa- 
sionally be  discussed  there,  or  in  public  halls.  It 
ought  to  be  shown  by  the  ministry  of  New  England 
that  the  great  wheel  of  the  factory  does  not  turn  the 
pulpit.  [Applause.]  The  bondage  of  the  pulpit,  I 
believe,  is  not  very  great  now.  We  can  defend 
j  ustice,  and  retain  our  parishes ;  but  the  day  may 
come  when,  unless  we  defend  justice  early,  we  cannot 
defend  it,  and  retain  our  places,  or  retain  united  con- 
gregations. The  expediency  of  discussing  these  top- 
ics results  from  the  growth  of  manufacturing  popula- 
tions in  New  England,  and  the  use  demagogues  are 
already  swift  to  make  of  the  accumulating  explosive 
social  materials.  Both  the  trenches  of  death,  the 
moral  and  the  physical,  will  be  filled  oftener  and 
oftener  unless  the  topic  of  wages  is  discussed  sharply, 
publicly,  resolutely,  defiantly. 


182  labobI 

"  With  fingers  weary  and  worn, 

With  eyelids  heavy  and  red, 
A  woman  sat  in  unwomanly  rags. 

Plying  her  needle  and  thread. 
Stitch,  stitch,  stitch, 

Seam  and  gusset  and  band, 
Band  and  gusset  and  seam. 

Till  over  the  buttons  I  fall  asleep^ 
And  sew  them  on  in  a  dream." 

Eighty-two  cents  a  day  for  female  labor  in  Massa- 
chusetts emphasize  even  these  well-known  lines  of 
Thomas  Hood's :  — 

"  Work,  work,  work. 

And  my  labor  never  flags; 
And  what  are  its  wages  ?  a  bed  of  straw, 

A  crust  of  bread  —  and  rags ; 
That  shattered  roof,  and  this  naked  floor, 

A  table,  a  broken  chair; 
And  a  wall  so  blank,  my  shadow  I  thank 

For  sometimes  falling  there ! 
Stitch,  stitch,  stitch. 
Would  that  these  tones  could  reach  the  rich! " 

Hood  :  Tlie  Song  of  the  Shirt. 


vn. 

WAGES  AND  CHILDEEN'S  EIGHTS. 


THE  ONE  HUNDRED  AND  SEVENTEENTH  LECTURE  IN  THE 

BOSTON  MONDAY  LECTURESHIP,  DELIVERED  IN 

TREMONT  TEMPLE,  DEC.  16. 


""WTiat  is  to  become  of  our  Cotton-trade?"  cried  certain  Spin- 
ners, when  the  Factory-Bill  was  proposed;  "  What  is  to  become  of 
our  invaluable  Cotton-trade?"  The  Humanity  of  England  an- 
swered steadfastly:  "Deliver  me  these  rickety  perishing  souls  of 
infants,  and  let  your  Cotton-trade  take  its  chance.  God  Ilimself 
commands  the  one  thing;  not  God  especially  the  other  thing.  "We 
cannot  have  prosperous  Cotton-trades  at  the  expense  of  keeping 
the  Devil  a  partner  in  them!  "  —  Caklylk. 

There  is  a  mighty  stir  now  made  in  behalf  of  education,  and  I 
heartily  thank  God  for  it;  but  let  me  ask  you  to  what  purpose  it  is 
to  take  a  little  child,  a  young  female  for  instance,  and  teach  her  for 
six  hours  a  day  the  rules  of  decency  and  every  virtue,  and  then 
send  her  back  to  such  alxnles  of  filth  and  profligacy,  as  to  make  her 
unlearn  by  the  practice  of  an  hour  the  lessons  of  a  year.  When  in 
early  life  these  persons  have  been  treated  as  swine,  they  are  after- 
wards expected  to  walk  with  the  dignity  of  Christians.  —  Lobd 
Suaftesbuby:  House  of  Commons. 


vn. 

WAGES  AND  CHILDREN'S  RIGHTS. 

PRELUDE  OK  CURRENT  EVENTS. 

It  is  a  cheerful  sign  of  the  times,  that  nearly  all 
large  temperance  efforts  in  America  have  of  late 
voluntarily  put  themselves  into  full  sympathy  with 
aggressive  Christianity.  Mr.  Reynolds,  Mr.  Mur- 
phy, and  especially  the  woman's  movement,  are  in 
substantial  accord  with  the  heart  of  the  churches. 

1.  So  far  as  drunkenness  is  a  vice,  it  is  to  be 
reformed,  and  the  treatment  of  it  belongs  to  the 
Church. 

2.  So  far  as  drunkenness  is  a  disease,  it  is  to  be 
cured,  and  the  treatment  of  it  belongs  to  physicians. 

3.  But  the  assertion  that  all  or  most  of  habitual 
drunkenness  is  a  disease  is  not  supported  by  the 
best  physiological  authorities,  however  loudly  it  may 
have  been  indorsed  by  the  proprietors  of  inebriate- 
asylums. 

The  theory  that  drunkenness  is  oftener  a  disease 
than  a  vice  is  going  out  of  fashion  among  experts. 
Dr.  Bucknill,  recently  a  foremost  visitor  of  lunatics 

185 


186  LABOR. 

in  Great  Britain,  and  a  fellow  of  the  Royal  College 
of  Physicians,  has  lately  made  a  vehement  attack 
on  that  theory.  Eight  or  ten  years  ago  inebriate- 
asylums  in  the  United  States  were  held  up  as  models 
to  Great  Britain.  Mr.  Dalrymple  of  Parliament 
took  American  testimony,  which  was  supposed  to 
prove  that  thirty-four  per  cent  of  the  patients  treated 
in  our  inebriate-asylums  were  cured.  Dr.  Bucknill 
came  to  this  country  in  1875,  when  the  wave  of 
popular  excitement  concerning  inebriate-asylums  had 
subsided  to  a  large  extent;  and  his  book  is  intended 
to  discredit  the  theory  that  habitual  drunkenness  is 
usually  a  disease.  The  attack  is  from  the  highest 
authority.  This  volume,  from  a  great  specialist  in 
nervous  disease,  is  a  vigorous  proclamation  of  the 
theory  that  habitual  drunkenness  in  most  cases  is  a 
vice  to  be  reformed  by  moral  measures,  rather  than  a 
disease  to  be  cured.  Dr.  Bucknill  thinks  practical 
Christianity  is  the  best  remedy  for  habitual  drunken- 
ness. [Applause.]  The  Binghamton  Inebriate  Asy- 
lum, at  one  time  deservedly  a  prominent  figure  in  the 
public  eye,  was  not  long  ago  put  on  trial  for  a  year, 
and  told  to  its  face  by  the  New  York  legislature, 
that,  unless  it  managed  its  affairs  better,  it  would  be 
suspended  at  the  end  of  that  period  of  probation. 
Pennsylvania  found  her  inebriate-asylum  at  Media 
80  badly  manfiged  that  she  abolished  it.  At  Ward's 
Island,  near  New  York,  there  was  lately  abolished  an 
inebriate-asylum,  at  which  a  prominent  physician 
from  the  City  Hospital,  according  to  Dr.  Bucknill's 
testimony,  once  found  five  patients  able  to  oflFer  him 


WAGES   AND   CHILDREN'S   EIGHTS.  187 

a  choice  of  spirits  in  their  own  rooms.  The  asylum 
was  on  an  island,  but  the  boatmen  from  New  York 
understood  sig^nals  from  the  windows.  At  Bingham- 
ton  liquor  could  be  obtained  by  a  half-hour's  walk  in 
almost  any  direction. 

Upper  Canada,  now  called  Ontario,  built  a  great 
establishment  at  Hamilton,  with  the  intention  of 
making  it  an  inebriate-asylum ;  but  she  has  of  late 
abandoned  her  intention  entirely,  and  given,  as  a 
reason  for  doing  so,  the  failure  of  the  inebriate-asy- 
lums in  the  United  States.  She  has  turned  now  the 
whole  establishment  she  opened  at  Hamilton  into  an 
asylum  for  the  insane,  and  repealed  her  statute  for 
the  control  of  inebriates.  (Bucknill,  Dr.  John 
Charles,  Habitual  Drunkenness  and  Insane  Drunk- 
ards^ London,  1878,  pp.  72,  73.) 

I  am  not  assailing  without  qualification  inebriate- 
asylums,  for  I  believe  there  is  a  percentage  of  cases 
that  should  be  treated  in  such  establishments ;  but  it 
is  a  smaller  percentage  than  the  self-interest  and 
avarice  of  some  of  the  managers  of  private  asylums, 
both  in  the  United  States  and  Great  Britain,  have 
often  proclaimed  it  to  be.  A  real  case  of  insane 
drunkenness  or  dipsomania  is  accompanied  by  signs 
which  expert  physicians  can  usually  read.  Periodi- 
city is  usually  one  of  them  ;  heredity  is  another ;  and, 
when  both  these  mark  a  case,  drunkenness  is  no 
doubt  fitly  called  a  disease  rather  than  a  vice. 

Seven  cases  out  of  ten  of  habitual  drunkenness, 
however,  our  best  experts  tell  us,  are  vice  and  not 
disease.     If  all  vehement  craving  for  drink  is  disease, 


188  LABOR. 

then  a  keg  of  fire-water  may  convert  a  group  of  sav- 
ages into  madmen  before  they  have  tasted  it.  The 
power  of  the  pledge  shows  that  in  most  cases  drunk- 
enness is  a  vice,  and  not  a  disease.  Dr.  Bucknill  tells 
the  story  of  an  eccentric  at  Rugby,  who  promised 
the  school-physician  that  he  would  not  touch  drink 
for  a  year,  although  he  had  been  what  is  called  a 
confirmed  drunkard.  His  case  had  been  supposed  to 
be  one  of  disease ;  but  he  kept  his  pledge,  and  won 
a  wager  from  the  physician.  At  twelve  o'clock  on 
the  ending  of  the  year,  he  began  to  drink  again,  and 
never  ceased  until  he  died. 

Very  surly  is  the  deep  tone  of  recent  science  con- 
cerning what  is  called  moderate  drinking.  Dr.  Buck- 
nill writes :  "  Of  late  years  the  upper  class  of  English 
has  become  sober,  and  its  growing  opinion  stamps 
drunkenness  more  and  more  as  a  disgrace ;  and  that 
some  small  proportion  of  its  members  are  left  behind 
in  the  shameful  indulgence  of  the  old  vice,  is  certainly 
not  a  matter  of  national  concern.  But  they  will 
ruin  themselves  I  No  doubt ;  and  why  should  they 
not?  Their  possessions  will  be  better  placed  in  sober 
hands,  and  their  undeserved  social  position  will  be 
yielded  to  the  advance  of  more  worthy  candidates. 
But  they  will  kill  themselves  I  And  this  also  is  more 
likely  than  lamentable,  especially  if  they  leave  no 
offspring  to  inherit  the  curse  of  their  qualities.  It 
would  be  a  national,  nay,  a  world-wide  blessing,  if 
alcoljol  were  really  the  active  poison  which  it  is  so 
often  represented  to  be,  that  men  who  indulge  in  it 
might  die  off  quickly.     The  French  have  somewhat 


WAGES   AND   CHILDREN'S  EIGHTS.  189 

improved  upon  pure  spirit  in  this  direction  by  the 
invention  of  absinthe,  which  causes  epilepsy ;  and 
the  Americans,  with  their  vile  compounds  of  raw 
whiskey  taken  into  empty  stomachs,  are  far  ahead  of 
ourselves.  An  American  drunkard  who  sticks  to 
his  work  has  a  much  better  prospect  of  finishing  it 
within  a  reasonably  short  time  than  the  English- 
man." 

Sixty  years  ago  Lyman  Beecher  attended  an  ordi- 
nation at  which  forty  dollars'  worth  of  liquors  were 
drunk  by  New  England  ministers.  To-day  Mrs. 
Hayes  — whom  may  God  bless !  —  expels  intoxicat- 
ing beverages  from  the  Presidential  mansion. 

4.  So  far  as  drunkenness  as  a  vice  leads  to  drunk- 
enness as  a  disease,  the  Church,  under  the  modern 
training  of  theological  students,  is  likely  to  know, 
better  than  ever  before,  how  to  emphasize  the  truths 
of  science  for  the  warning  of  the  middle-aged  and 
the  young. 

In  1867  there  was  founded  at  Princeton  College 
a  professorship  for  the  discussion  of  the  relations 
between  Christianity  and  science.  In  the  Princeton 
Theological  Seminary  there  is  a  chair  for  a  similar 
purpose.  There  is  a  professorship,  with  ten  thou- 
sand dollars  behind  it,  in  Union  Theological  Semi- 
nary, for  the  discussion  of  the  relations  of  the  Bible 
and  science.  The  Vedder  lectureship  in  New  Bruns- 
wick is  devoted  to  similar  themes.  Willard  Parker 
founded  a  professorship  of  hygiene  in  Union  Theo- 
logical Seminary.  At  Andover  there  has  just  been 
established  a  professorship,  with  fifty  thousand  dol- 


190  LABOR. 

lars  behind  it,  to  discuss  the  relations  of  science  and 
Christianity.  In  view  of  these  new  endowments, 
I  undertake  to  say  that  unless  we,  whose  duty  it  is 
to  teach  religious  truth  publicly,  inform  ourselves  on 
the  relations  of  religion  and  science,  we  shall  be 
behind  the  times  fifteen  years  hence,  or  twenty, 
when  the  men  come  forward  who  have  been  trained 
in  these  improved  courses  of  study.  The  relations 
of  the  church  to  temperance  are  therefore  not  unim- 
portant on  the  purely  scientific  side.  Already  the 
demand  is  growing  loud  for  the  introduction  into 
common  schools  and  sabbath  schools  of  some  instruc- 
tion on  the  natural  laws  of  health  in  their  relations 
to  intemperance;  and  excellent  text-books  on  this 
topic  have  been  prepared  by  experts.  (See  Dr. 
Richardson's  Cantor  Lectures  and  his  Text  Book  on 
Alcohol.^ 

Forbes  Winslow,  the  celebrated  English  physician 
for  the  insane,  once  told  a  committee  of  Parliament 
that  he  could  dip  out  of  the  brain  of  any  habitual 
drunkard  a  fluid  so  full  of  alcohol  that  when  put  in 
a  spoon,  and  a  lamp  placed  beneath  it,  the  liquid 
would  burn  with  a  blue  flame.  Perhaps  the  two 
most  important  physical  circumstances  which  can  be 
pointed  out  in  relation  to  alcohol  are  that  it  hardens 
all  the  colloid  or  glue-like  substances  in  the  body, 
and  that  it  lias  a  local  affinity  for  the  brain.  Alcohol 
hardens  the  white  of  an  egg.  The  brain,  and  much 
of  tlie  matter  in  the  nervous  system,  is  albuminous 
in  chemical  comi)osition,  as  the  white  of  an  egg  is ; 
and  as  alcohol  everywhere  else  hardens  colloid  sub- 


"WAGES   AND   CHILDREN'S  RIGHTS.  191 

stances,  so  it  does  in  the  brain.  The  blue  flame 
which  Forbes  Winslow  emphasizes  shows  the  affinity 
of  alcohol  for  the  brain,  and  should  be  kept  burning 
as  a  pillar  of  fire  before  tempted  men.  There  is  a 
famous  saying  of  Hyrtl, — quoted  lately  in  "  The  Sci- 
entific American," —  that  he  could  tell  in  the  dark 
whether  he  was  dissecting  a  drunkard's  brain  or  the 
brain  of  a  temperate  man,  for  the  former  would  be 
hard  under  the  scalpel.  He  used  to  explain  to  his 
pupils  that  the  only  way  to  obtain  good  brains  for 
dissection  was  to  harden  them  by  alcohol,  or  to  find 
brains  that  had  been  hardened  before  death. 

5.  So  far  as  drunkenness  depends  on  open  tempta- 
tion to  it,  the  interests  of  trade  and  politics  require 
the  shutting  by  law  of  all  public  doors  to  vice ;  and 
in  furtherance  of  this  work  the  Church  may  well  put 
forth  its  best  energies,  and  invoke  the  aid  of  woman's 
vote. 

There  are  eight  miles  of  legalized  grog-shops  in 
Boston.  (^Report  of  the  Advisory  Committee  of  the 
Massachusetts  Temperance  Alliance.,  Oct.  18,  1877.) 
[Applause.]  Take  the  licensed  dram-shops  of  Bos- 
ton,'allow  each  one  twenty  feet  of  front,  put  them 
in  a  line,  and  you  have  eight  miles  of  manufactories 
of  madmen  and  paupers.  [Applause.]  Has  Massa- 
chusetts, paying  such  taxes  that  her  elections  often 
turn  on  schemes  for  a  reduction  of  the  burdens  of 
the  people,  nothing  to  say  about  the  execution  of 
temperance  laws?  Eight  solid  miles  engaged  in  a 
business  at  war  with  every  other  traffic  !  When  the 
shrewd   black   angels   watch   cities   at  midnight,  it 


192  LABOR. 

must  be  that  they  laugh  a  little  at  the  merchants 
engaged  in  honorable  trades,  to  see  how  the  latter 
are  fleeced  by  the  proprietors  of  whiskey-dens.  The 
indictment  to  be  brought  against  the  liquor-traffic, 
in  the  name  of  trade,  is  that  it  can  succeed  only  by 
standing  on  the  ruins  of  other  trades.  It  is  a  pirate ; 
it  is  a  leech ;  it  is  the  enemy  of  all  honest  traffic. 
That  citizens  in  the  honorable  pursuits  of  mercantile 
life  are  not  to  a  man  united  against  the  unlicensed 
dram-shops  in  Boston  and  New  York  and  throughout 
the  world,  is  a  puzzle,  I  think,  to  the  acutest  black 
angels  that  move  to  and  fro  through  the  midnights 
of  the  planet. 

Our  church  property  in  the  United  States,  all 
massed  together,  is  worth  only  three  hundred  and 
fifty-four  millions  of  dollars.  The  drink-bill  of  the 
United  States  is  seven  hundred  millions  of  dollars  a 
year.  That  is  an  estimate  by  the  National  Bureau  of 
Statistics.  There  is  no  accurate  return  even  in  the 
revenue  department. 

It  has  been  shown  again  and  again  that  the  finan- 
cial loss  sustained  by  the  sale  of  drinks  amounts, 
every  fifteen  years,  to  a  value  equal  to  that  of*  the 
property  destroyed  in  the  five  years  of  the  civil  war. 
Every  one  knows  that  statements  of  this  kind  are 
facts,  and  not  declamation.  A  civil  war  for  five 
years,  every  fifteen  years,  would  destroy  no  more 
property  than  the  rum  traffic  I 

It  is  said  the  church  can  do  nothing  with  the 
gigantic  Apollyon  of  the  liquor-trade,  striding  across 
the  whole  breadth  of  the  mercantile  highway.     The 


WAGES  AND   CHILDREN'S   EIGHTS.  193 

ministry  of  the  United  States,  without  going  out  of 
their  own  houses  of  worship,  have  opportunity  to 
reach  with  the  living  voice  twenty-three  millions 
of  people.  That  is  the  number  of  sittings  in  the 
churches  of  the  United  States,  and  I  suppose  that  on 
an  average  for  the  year  most  ministers  address  as 
riiany  people  as  can  be  brought  together  in  their 
churches.  Probably  twenty-three  millions,  who  are 
old  enough  to  go  to  church,  are  effectively  reached 
by  the  voice  of  the  pulpit  in  this  land. 

What  if  the  church  should  be  as  stern  with  rich 
proprietors  of  property  used  for  dram-shops  as  the 
law  of  Massachusetts  is  at  this  hour?  When  the 
proprietor  of  a  block  of  buildings  at  the  North  End 
lets  a  cellar  there,  if  the  tenant  violates  the  temper- 
ance laws,  and  is  convicted,  notice  is  served  on  the 
proprietor,  according  to  the  Massachusetts  law,  as  it 
now  stands ;  and  he  is  required,  under  the  old  law  of 
common  nuisance,  to  eject  that  tenant  under  penalty. 
That  is  what  the  State  requires  of  the  rich  proprietor 
of  property.  What  does  the  church  of  the  Heavenly 
Rest  require  of  that  proprietor,  if  he  is  a  church- 
member?  Why,  that  he  should  go  on  with  his  heav- 
enly rest,  and  pay  his  bills  in  the  church !  [Ap- 
plause.] Do  you  believe  that  the  world  is  likely  to 
be  deeply  impressed  by  our  temperance  addresses 
when  average  church  discipline  on  that  point  is  laxer 
than  the  Massachusetts  secular  law  of  to-day?  I 
have  no  church,  you  say,  and  can  say  these  things 
with  impunity.  If  I  had  a  church,  and  could  not 
say  them  with  impunity,  I  should  not  have  a  church 


194  LABOR. 

long.       I    had    rather  be  penniless   than  a  pulpit 
spaniel.     [Applause.] 

There  stands  a  noble  State  House  in  the  cornfields 
near  Springfield,  111.,  and  Lincoln's  grave  lies  under 
its  shadow.  Above  his  grave,  a  legislature  will  be 
petitioned  this  winter  by  ladies  of  Illinois  to  give 
women  of  legal  age  the  right  to  vote  in  cases  of  local 
option  under  temperance-laws.  The  petitioners  are 
not  female-suffragists.  They  protest  against  being 
called  by  that  name.  The  queen  of  lecturesses,  Mrs. 
Livermore,  a  lady  whose  eloquence  has  had  a  larger 
public  recognition  than  that  of  any  other  woman  in 
ancient  or  modern  times,  is  president  of  the  Massa- 
chusetts Woman's  Temperance  Union,  and  informs 
New  England  that  the  seaboard  and  the  Mississippi 
Valley  are.  to  unite  in  asking  a  vote  for  woman  in 
regard  to  the  temperance-laws.  The  language  of  the 
West  and  that  of  the  East  are  nearly  the  same.  The 
Chicago  women  say,  "  We  petition  that  by  suitable 
legislation  it  may  be  provided  that  in  the  State  of 
Illinois  the  question  of  licensing  at  any  time,  in  any 
locality,  the  sale  of  any  and  all  intoxicating  drinks, 
including  wine  and  beer,  be  submitted  to  and  deter- 
mined by  ballot,  in  which  women  of  lawful  age  shall 
be  privileged  to  take  part  in  the  same  manner  and 
under  only  such  restrictions  as  obtain  in  reference  to 
voting  by  men  on  the  question  of  license."  The 
Massachusetts  Temperance  Union  passes  this  resolu- 
tion: "That,  while  we  disavow  any  connection  with 
the  general  movement  for  giving  the  ballot  to  women, 
we  yet  believe  that  woman  should  have  the  right  to 


WAGES  AND  CHILDEEN'S   EIGHTS.  195 

vote  on  all  questions  relating  to  the  legislation  on 
the  liquor-traffic,  and  we  hereby  resolve  that  we  will 
petition  the  legislature  for  this  right  until  it  is 
granted  to  us."     [Applause.] 

Let  that  thunder  be  heard  in  the  General  Court 
[applause],  and  heard  loudly,  for  politicians  are  not 
likely  to  take  the  lead  on  this  subject.  After  ten 
years  of  experience  of  woman's  suffrage,  Wyoming 
Territory,  by  the  voice  of  three  of  her  governors, 
proclaims  it  a  success.  (^Cheyenne  Daily  Leader^ 
Nov.  22.)  In  New  Hampshire,  the  line  has  already 
been  broken  as  to  the  exclusion  of  women  from 
participation  in  the  settlement  of  questions  closely 
touching  the  home.  Let  it  be  noticed  that  New 
Hampshire,  a  conservative  New-England  State,  has 
just  given  women  the  right  to  vote  on  all  questions 
concerning  the  school-laws.  [Applause.]  I  am  not 
a  woman-suffragist.  Do  not  applaud  this  platform 
under  the  mistaken  idea  that  I  am  a  defender  of 
extreme  positions  as  to  woman's  rights.  I  am  medi- 
tating on  that  theme.  [Applause.]  But  this  I  dare 
say,  that  one  of  the  fragments  of  self-protection  for 
women  —  namely,  a  right  to  vote  concerning  temper- 
ance-laws, when  the  question  of  local  option  is  up  — 
I  am  willing  to  defend,  and  intend  to  defend,  to  the 
end  of  the  chapter.  [Applause.]  Great  natural 
justice  is  on  the  side  of  such  a  demand.  Woman's 
interests  are  among  the  chief  ones  concerned;  and 
as  to  family  divisions,  why,  they  come  largely  from 
temperance  laxness.  Woman  has  surely  political 
intelligence    enough   to   understand   the    difference 


196  LABOR. 

between  license  and  no  license,  especially  when  she 
has  suffered  under  a  lax  execution  of  temperance- 
laws.  The  difference  is  so  plain,  between  local  free- 
dom and  no  local  freedom  to  sell  liquor,  that  woman, 
without  any  great  participation  in  the  turmoil  of 
politics,  might  be  expected  to  have  an  intelligent 
vote  on  this  subject.  I  know  that  many  cultivated 
and  refined  women  say  they  do  not  want  women  to 
vote,  because  they  do  not  want  to  increase  the 
amount  of  ignorant  suffrage.  We  all  respect  the  in- 
telligence and  the  refinement  of  the  ladies  who  make 
such  remarks ;  and  yet  I  believe  that  on  most  moral 
questions,  woman  is  likely  to  be  more  intelligent  and 
certainly  more  disinterested  than  man.  [Applause.] 
I  am  told  by  many  of  the  best  authorities,  that 
women,  who  are  opposed  to  female  suffrage  at  large, 
are  usually  in  favor  of  this  modified  measure.  I  am 
assured  that  a  majority  of  the  thoughtful,  cultivated 
women  of  the  United  States,  or  certainly  of  the 
Northern  States,  can  be  expected  to  favor  this  demand 
for  a  vote  to  be  given  to  woman  in  questions  of  local 
option  concerning  temperance-laws.  If  a  majority 
of  women  want  such  a  vote.  Heaven  grant  their 
desire !  [Applause.]  Women  would  be  united  on 
this  topic.  Woman's  vote  would  be,  to  city  vices 
depending  on  intemperance,  what  the  lightning  is  to 
the  oak.  God  send  us  that  lightning  I  [Applause.] 
On  the  table  of  the  chief  of  police  of  Boston, 
there  lies  a  complete  catalogue  of  all  the  mentionable 
and  unmentionable  dens  of  iniquity  in  this  city. 
He  does  not  close  them,  because  you  do  not  urge  him 


WAGES  AND   CHILDIIEN'S   EIGHTS.  197 

into  the  work  of  doing  so.  Who  is  responsible? 
The  hand,  or  the  shoulder  and  the  heart  below  the 
shoulder  ?  On  that  same  table  of  the  chief  of  police, 
there  lies  now  a  license-law,  and  how  is  it  executed? 
In  the  county  of  Suifolk,  in  the  year  ending  October, 
1877,  1,667  cases  of  violation  of  the  temperance-law 
were  brought  before  the  Superior  Court ;  29  of  them 
were  tried,  14  only  were  convicted ;  more  than  1,100 
were  laid  on  file ;  and  the  officer  through  whose  oily 
fingers  most  of  these  cases  slipped  is  renominated. 
(  Official  Report  of  the  Massachusetts  Temperance  Alli- 
ance. See  also  a  speech  by  Mr.  W.  F.  Spalding,  in 
a  hearing  given  by  the  Legislative  Committee  on  the 
Liquor  Law,  Jan.  30,  1878.) 

That  law,  thus  administered,  lies  on  the  table  of 
your  chief  of  police ;  and  what  lies  above  it  ?  A 
proposal  for  a  local-option  law ;  and  that  is  weighted 
down  by  a  veto,  although  there  were  cast  in  favor  of 
such  a  law  the  votes  of  two-thirds  of  the  members  of 
one  political  party  in  your  General  Court.  Massa- 
chusetts is  Christian ;  Massachusetts  retires  to  her 
closet  to  pray.  Can  she  ask  God's  blessing  on  a 
license-law  ?  Can  she  ask  God's  blessing  on  a  cat- 
alogue of  legalized  dens  of  iniquity  ?  Eight  miles  of 
doors,  and  all  the  evil  their  traffic  does  in  Massa- 
chusetts, exists  according  to  law ! 

God  paralyze  my  arm,  if  I  ever  lift  it  to  cast  a 
ballot  in  favor  of  the  license  of  leeches  on  legitimate 
trade,  or  for  the  legalization  of  manufactories  of  pau- 
pers arid  madmen  !  [Applause.]  God  paralyze  my 
arm,  if  ever  I  put  into  the  ballot-box  a  vote  in  favor 


198  LABOR. 

of  any  form  of  temperance  legislation  clamorously 
demanded  by  the  liquor-traffic  itself!  [Applause.] 
"  Drink  no  wine  or  strong  drink,"  was  the  message 
to  the  wife  of  Manoah,  from  an  angel  whose  name 
was  secret  and  divine,  and  of  whom  the  record  is 
that  he  did  wondrously.  I  undertake  to  predict,  in 
the  words  of  Henry  Wilson,  that  what  the  people  of 
Massachusetts,  the  great  masses,  cannot  pray  God 
for,  cannot  go  on  the  statute-book  of  this  Common- 
wealth, and  stay  there.     [Applause.] 

THE  LECTURE. 

American  laborers  are  not  expected  to  live  like 
Chinamen ;  and  Chinamen,  when  they  become  Ameri- 
cans, will  not  live  like  citizens  of  the  Celestial  Em- 
pire. The  way  to  lift  the  Chinese  question  out  of 
being  a  puzzle  to  our  politicians  and  philanthropists, 
is  to  change  the  habits  of  the  Chinese,  little  by  little, 
into  those  of  American  laborers.  The  progress  of 
democracy  has  made  inapplicable  the  standards  of 
expense  to  which  low-paid  labor  was  accustomed  in 
barbaric  times.  I  do  not  discuss  skilled  labor,  but 
the  poorest  of  the  poor.  The  cost  of  maintaining  a 
hundred  thousand  paupers  in  the  city  of  London,  in 
1875,  was  officially  ascertained  to  be  five  times  as 
great  as  that  of  maintaining  a  similar  number  in 
1815.  The  difference  arises  almost  entirely  from  the 
fact  that  the  average  popular  estimate  of  what  is 
humanly  necessary  to  maintain  even  the  poorest  of 
the  poor  has  risen.  In  fifty  years  Great  Britain  has 
lifted  her  estimate  on  this  point  so  rapidly  that  she 


WAGES  AND   CHILDREN'S  EIGHTS.  199 

spends  five  times  as  much  for  a  given  number  of 
paupers  now  as  she  did  fifteen  years  after  the  open- 
ing of  the  century.  (Prof.  Bonamy  Peice,  Prac- 
tical Political  Economy,  1878,  p.  237.)  Using  the 
scale  of  London  expenses  for  paupers  to  show  what 
necessary  expenses  must  be,  you  will  find  that  the 
modern  world  often  exposes  children  as  pitilessly  to 
be  crushed  under  the  wheels  of  trade  as  the  Spartans 
of  old  exposed  infants  on  Mount  Taygetus. 

1.  The  expenses  and  earnings  of  397  families 
depending  on  wages  were  oflBcially  ascertained  in 
Massachusetts  in  1874.  (Lahor  Bureau  Report  for 
1875,  Part  IV.) 

2. .  So  far  as  can  be  judged  by  this  large  induction, 
the  largest  ever  made  in  the  world,  only  thirty-five 
per  cent  of  the  heads  of  working-men's  families  in 
Massachusetts  were  able  by  their  individual  earnings 
to  supply  their  families'  needs. 

3.  Sixty-four  per  cent  rely  on  the  assistance  of 
wives  and  children. 

4.  Under  low-paid  labor  one  of  the  earliest  in- 
fringements of  the  rights  of  children  is  that  they  are 
left  at  home  under  poor  care  while  the  mothers  are  in 
the  mills. 

5.  Another  infringement  is  the  lack  of  household 
training  for  girls. 

What  does  this  mean?  To  bring  the  matter  at 
once  to  a  point,  let  me  cite  a  letter  I  received  lately 
from  one  of  the  ladies  leading  in  the  management  of 
our  ind  ustrial  reformatory  schools :  "  In  every  report 
of  young   woman    and    Christian    associations   and 


200  LABOR. 

unions,  as  in  every  report  of  a  young  girls'  home 
or  industrial  school,  and  every  intelligence-office, 
thoughtfully  conducted,  and  every  other  place  in 
which  girls  seek  employment,  the  lack  of  trained 
skill  is  the  one  ceaseless  hinderance."  How  does 
this  lack  arise? 

Mr.  Mundella,  when  he  moved  in  Parliament,  a 
few  years  ago,  for  a  reduction  of  the  hours  of  labor 
of  married  women,  said  that  one  hundred  and  eighty 
thousand  mothers  are  in  the  factories  of  England, 
and  that  their  children  have  little  opportunity  to 
learn  how  to  conduct  household  work.  The  slat- 
ternly housekeeping  of  the  daughters  of  the  mothers 
who  must  be  early  and  late  at  the  looms,  is  a  proverb. 
Although  you  say  New  England  has  very  few  of  the 
difficulties  Mr.  Mundella  struck  at  in  his  famous  bill 
against  the  employment  of  married  women  in  fac- 
tories, we  are  likely  to  have  such  difficulties  in  due 
time.  The  present  transition  state  of  New  England 
is  setting  fashions  for  many  years  to  come,  and  this 
audience  is  an  outlook-committee  for  the  centuries 
next  before  us.  Already  we  have  thrust  in  our  faces 
the  lack  of  trained  skill  as  the  ceaseless  hinderance 
to  employment  even  in  domestic  work  of  the  young 
women  who  seek  places  through  our  intelligence- 
offices  and  young  women's  Christian  associations 
and  young  girls'  homes.  My  correspondent  says: 
"  The  city  public  schools  can,  at  their  best,  do  but 
a  partial  work.  The  children  of  the  very  poor  have 
no  homes  in  which  this  partial  school  training  is  sup- 
plemented by  training  in  good  personal  habits.     The 


WAGES  AJ^TD  CHILDREN'S  EIGHTS.  201 

girl  —  if,  indeed,  any  chance  to  learn  by  imitation 
were  possible  to  her  in  the  usual  evil  neighborhood 
of  the  poorest  homes  —  has  not  the  out-door  chance 
of  the  boy  to  learn  better  things.  Many  of  these 
little  girls  who  come  into  our  industrial  schools  can- 
not set  a  stitch.  How,  then,  shall  they  have  the 
economy  and  neatness  in  attire  essential  to  the  first 
success  in  getting  work  of  any  sort?  These  poor 
little  girls  are  not  unknown  as  patients  in  hospitals 
for  evil  diseases  before  fifteen  years  of  age." 

Silenus  and  other  wild  beasts  wander  yet  over 
Mount  Taygetus,  on  which  the  children  are  exposed 
to  death !  What  is  the  trouble  here  ?  The  answer 
is  that  sixty-four  per  cent  of  the  wages  class  in  Mas- 
sachusetts rely  for  the  support  of  their  families  on 
the  assistance  of  wives  and  children !  Dull  statis- 
tics, you  say  ?  As  part  of  the  family  record  of  your 
descendants,  they  will  not  be  dull ! 

6.  Of  skilled  workmen,  fifty-six  per  cent  get  along 
alone ;  of  salaried  overseers,  seventy-five  per  cent ; 
of  unskilled  workmen,  only  nine  per  cent. 

7.  The  skilled  workman  obtains  five  per  cent  of 
the  money  needed  to  support  his  family,  and  the 
unskilled  nineteen,  from  the  labor  of  children  under 
fifteen  years  of  age. 

This  is  not  Prussia,  nor  France,  nor  Austria,  nor 
England.  This  is  New  England,  in  its  early  manu- 
facturing career. 

8.  Children  constitute  forty-four  per  cent  of  the 
number  of  work-people,  and  produce  but  twenty-four 
per  cent  of  the  income. 


202    V  LABOB. 

9.  In  families  which  the  father  is  unable  to  support 
alone,  sixteen  and  one-third  per  cent  of  the  income  is 
the  result  of  labor  of  wives  and  of  children  under 
fifteen  years  of  age. 

10.  In  order  that  these  wives  may  remain  at  home, 
and  these  children  attend  school,  this  sixteen  and 
one-third  per  cent  must  be  added  to  the  wages  of 
the  father. 

11.  The  unnaturally  low  remuneration  of  labor  is 
a  direct  temptation  to  the  violation  of  the  rights  of 
children,  by  the  forcing  of  them  into  work  when  they 
should  be  at  school,  and  thus  fosters  the  growth  of 
an  ignorant  class,  which  is  likely  to  be  also  an  unem- 
ployed, explosive,  and  perhaps  criminal  class. 

12.  The  yearly  average  expenditure  for  the  food  of 
a  working-man's  family  is  four  hundred  and  twenty- 
two  dollars  and  sixteen  cents. 

What  are  the  necessary  expenses,  not  of  a  Mexican 
in  the  tropics,  but  of  a  family  in  the  climate  of  our 
Northern  States;  not  of  a  coolie,  but  of  an  American 
citizen  educating  sons  to  become  a  part  of  our  popular 
sovereignty  under  universal  suffrage  ? 

13.  If  we  are  not  to  have  an  ignorant  popular 
sovereignty,  among  the  necessary  expenses  of  Ameri- 
can working-men,  besides  food,  we  must  reckon  these 
dozen  articles :  rent,  fuel,  boots  and  shoes,  clothing, 
dry  goods,  taxes,  school-books,  furniture,  tools,  news- 
papers, religion,  and  sundries,  including  sickness. 

It  has  been  found,  by  official  investigation  in  Mas- 
sachusetts, that  the  yearly  average  expenditure  for 
the  food  of  a  family  of  the   laboring   class  is  four 


WAGES   AND  CHILDREN'S   EIGHTS.  203 

hundred  and  twenty-two  dollars  and  sixteen  cents. 
Food  includes  gi'oceries,  meat  and  fish  and  milk. 
Kerosene-oil  and  lights  are  reckoned  under  the 
head  of  groceries. 

14.  These  twelve  other  necessary  articles  will  cost, 
on  the  average,  nearly  as  much  as  the  food. 

This  deduction  is  not  found  in  your  State  reports, 
for  your  overworked  bureau  cannot  always  press  out 
from  the  rich  grapes  of  its  own  statistics  all  the  wine 
of  truth  they  may  contain.  I  have  personally  gone 
through  the  record  given  here  in  detail  of  the  ex- 
penses of  about  three  hundred  families,  and  I  am 
forced  to  this  conclusion. 

15.  It  follows  that  unless  the  head  of  a  family, 
with  children  who  cannot  labor  remuneratively,  is 
paid  about  twice  as:  much  as  the  cost  of  his  un- 
cooked food,  he  is  likely  to  fall  into  debt. 

16.  The  purchasing  power  of  a  day's  labor  ought 
to  be  at  least  equal  to  twice  the  cost  of  the  unpre- 
pared food  of  the  laborer.  Of  course  the  price  of 
food  may  vary,  and  so  may  wages.  When  food  costs 
four  hundred  and  twenty-two  dollars  a  year  for  a 
family  that  cannot  earn  any  thing  except  by  the 
work  of  the  head  of  the  household,  that  family 
ought  to  have  somewhere  about  eight  liandred  and 
fifty  dollars  coming  to  it,  otherwise  it  will  inevitably 
graduate  members  unfit  to  become  part  of  our  popu- 
lar sovereignty.  Sound  popular  sovereignty  will  not 
be  the  result  if  you  shorten  in  any  considerable 
degree  the  list  of  necessities  I  have  mentioned.  Get 
along   without    school-books?      Get   along   without 


204  LABOR. 

newspapers  ?  Get  along  without  attendance  at 
church?  You  say  these  are  not  necessaries  of  life 
for  Chinamen?  They  are  for  Americans.  [Ap- 
plause.] 

17.  The  relation  of  earnings  to  the  cost  of  living 
in  Massachusetts  is  now  such  that  the  fact  stands 
out  plainly  that  the  head  of  a  family  who  is  "  the 
recipient  of  a  wage  of  less  than  six  hundred  dollars 
must  get  in  debt."  That  is  the  language  of  your 
bureau  (^Report  for  1875,  p.  380)  in  summarizing  its 
investigation  of  the  average  condition  of  three  hun- 
dred and  ninety-seven  families.  Some  of  these  con- 
tained only  a  few  children,  some  had  more ;  but  that 
was  the  average. 

18.  Without  children's  assistance,  the  majority  of 
working-men's  families  would  be  in  poverty  or  debt. 

19.  Children  under  fifteen  years  of  age  supply  by 
their  labor  from  one-eighth  to  one-sixth  of  the  total 
family  earnings. 

20.  Although  the  average  saving  is  about  three  per 
cent  of  the  earnings,  only  in  a  few  cases  is  there 
evidence  of  the  possibility  of  acquiring  a  competence, 
and  in  those  cases  it  would  be  the  result  of  assisted 
or  family  labor. 

These  twenty  propositions  are  the  heart  of  my 
theme,  and  need  much  illustration ;  but  I  have 
stated  them  in  tolerably  close  serial  order,  so  that 
their  interdependence  may  be  seen  at  a  glance. 

There  is  in  my  hands  a  letter  from  a  man  of  affairs 
in  this  city,  and  its  topic  is  low-paid  female  labor. 
There  is  no  red-hot  gridiron  here,  otherwise  I  should 


"WAGES   AND   CHILDREN'S   RIGHTS.  205 

like  to  grill  upon  it  in  a  public  presence  the  man  who 
suggested  infamy  to  a  girl  as  a  means  of  increasing 
her  wages  behind  a  counter.  You  would  like  to  broil 
thus  any  man  doing  that.  I  suppose  the  case  was  a 
great  exception ;  but  I  have  excellent  evidence  that 
there  is  no  exaggeration  in  what  I  am  about  to  read 
to  you.  This  is  not  an  anonymous  letter ;  but  the 
writer,  who  signs  it  with  his  own  full  name,  is  re- 
corded in  the  directory  of  the  city  to  which  he  be- 
longs, and  his  occupation  is  mentioned.  "  A  young 
lady,  whose  family  became  reduced  in  worldly  cir- 
cumstances, felt  that  she  must  try  to  do  something 
for  herself,  and  therefore  she  applied  at  a  large 
retail  dry-goods  house  for  a  situation.  'Yes,'  said 
the  proprietor,  '  we  will  take  you ;   your  salary  will 

be '  (naming  the  price).     '  Oh,  sir,'  said  she,  'I 

can't  live  upon  that.'  '  I  understand  you,  miss,'  was 
the  reply.  'Several  of  these  girls  don't  live  upon 
what  we  pay  them.  Do  you  see  that  young  lady 
there  ?  We  pay  her  just  what  I  offer  you :  a  young 
man  pays  her  the  rest.' "  I  wish  the  gridiron  were 
here  for  the  broiling.  [Applause.]  "  I  know  whereof 
I  affirm,"  continues  this  writer,  whose  letter  aroused 
an  indignation  I  dare  not  express  here ;  "  and  I  think 
that  when  it  comes  to  this,  the  matter  goes  a  step 
beyond  low  wages."  This  is  simply  an  illustration 
of  one  effect  of  low  wages.  "Please  remember 
that  this  young  woman  was  not  only  a  person  of 
high  character  and  good  family,  but  also  a  perfect 
stranger  to  this  merchant." 

If  you   could   see   letters   that  come  to  me  from 


206  LABOE. 

many  quarters,  signed  and  bearing  responsible  names, 
you  would  not  think  that  I  am  pressing  the  topic  of 
low-paid  labor  to  extremes.  I  have  taken  great 
pains  to  avoid  being  caught  in  any  traps.  That 
letter,  before  I  read  it,  was  shown  to  three  or  four 
experts ;  and  the  signature  I  know  to  be  authentic, 
and  the  character  of  the  man  who  wrote  it  is  vouched 
for  in  a  great  variety  of  ways  to  me.  Let  it  be 
granted  that  this  is  an  exception;  but  when  an 
exception  like  this  occurs,  when  there  is  a  possibility 
of  a  class  of  low-paid  girls  coming  into  conditions  of 
this  sort,  where  is  Massachusetts?  Where  is  the 
spirit  of  the  fathers,  that  we  do  not  arouse  ourselves 
to  execute  legislation  like  that  of  the  old  law  of 
1670? 

Our  fathers  had  not  been  on  this  shore  fifty  years 
before  they  passed  a  law  intended  to  rescue  the  coun- 
try from  the  barbarism  of  an  uneducated  working 
population.  The  earliest  Massachusetts  statutes  are 
full  of  reverence  for  learning ;  but  here  is  a  passage 
from  an  enactment  of  1050  that  has  in  it  a  trumpet- 
like prophetic  tone  for  our  day  :  — 

"  Forasmuch  as  the  good  education  of  children  is 
of  singular  behoof  and  benefit  to  any  common- 
wealth, a^Ld  whereas  many  parents  and  masters  are 
too  indulgent  and  negligent  of  their  duty  in  that 
kind,  it  is  therefore  ordered  by  this  court  and  the 
authority  thereof,  that  the  selectmen  of  every  town, 
in  the  several  precincts  and  quarters  where  they 
dwell,  shall  have  a  vigilant  eye  over  their  brethren 
and  neighbors,  to  see,  first,  that  none  of  them  shall 


WAGES  AND   CHELDEEN'S  EIGHTS.  207 

suffer  so  much  barbarism  in  any  of  their  families,  as 
not  to  endeavor  to  teach  by  themselves  or  others 
their  children  and  apprentices  so  much  learning  as 
may  enable  them  perfectly  to  read  the  English 
tongue  and  knowledge  of  the  capital  laws,  upon  pen- 
alty of  twenty  shillings  for  each  neglect  therein." 

Contemporaneous  with  the  incorporation  of  com- 
panies for  manufacturing  purposes,  the  General 
Assembly  of  Connecticut,  in  its  May  session  for 
1813,  passed  laws  to  secure  the  elementary  instruc- 
tion of  children  employed  in  factories  and  manufac- 
turing establishments.  These  early  provisions  were 
absorbed  into  the  Connecticut  statutes  of  1838,  and 
are  claimed  to  be  the  first  American  legislation  on 
behalf  of  factory-children. 

The  deputy  State  constable  of  Massachusetts 
reported  in  1875,  that  there  were  then  "  in  this  Com- 
monwealth upwards  of  sixty  thousand  children,  of 
school  ages,  who  are  growing  up  in  ignorance,  con- 
trary to  the  ancient  policy  of  the  State,  and  in  open 
violation  of  the  letter  and  spirit  of  existing  laws." 
(^Report  on  the  ScJiooling  and  Hours  of  Labor  of 
CJdldren,  by  Geoege  E.  McNeill,  Jan.  11,  1875.) 
These  numbers  others  think  are  too  large  for  the 
facts,  but  look  forward,  and  you  will  soon  double 
the  figures,  at  the  rate  at  which  manufacturing  cen  ■ 
tres  are  increasing  in  population.  These  children 
grow  up  ignorant  because  of  the  low  wages  which 
require  fathers  to  send  the  children  into  the  mills. 
They  grow  up  without  knowing,  if  they  are  girls, 
how  to  set  a  stitch,  because  their  mothers  must  be 


208  LABOR. 

behind  looms,  and  because  a  home  left  in  the  care  of 
very  young  or  aged  persons  is  no  place  in  which  to 
teach  housekeeping  in  detail.  They  grow  up  slat- 
ternly, and  so  find  it  difficult  to  obtain  situations. 
They  grow  up  open  at  various  points  to  moral  temp- 
tations which  would  not  assail  them  if  a  higher  spirit 
of  self-respect  had  been  fostered  by  giving  the  head 
of  the  family  power  to  maintain  his  household. 

Advocating  no  socialistic  proposition,  and  defend- 
ing no  communistic  dream,  I  yet  believe  the  day  will 
come  when  the  cost  of,  its  production  will  determine 
the  pay  of  labor.  The  cost  of  production  includes 
the  support  of  a  family.  We  cannot  give  the  State 
the  strength  of  its  citizens  on  any*  rule  that  starves 
men.  We  cannot  produce  a  skilled  class  unless  we 
bring  our  children  up  well.  Unless  we  have  a  cer- 
tain regard  for  skill  as  well  as  for  the  mill,  the  mill 
itself  will  be  without  skilled  operatives.  In  time 
there  cannot  be  a  fit  laboring  class  provided,  unless 
you  give  such  wages  as  will  enable  an  average  head 
of  a  family  to  put  among  his  expenses  school-books, 
newspapers,  and  religion.  There  must  be  somewhere 
a  lifting  of  the  income  of  the  lowest-paid  class  of 
laborers:  otherwise  we  shall  have  monstrosity  after 
monstrosity,  and  the  heart  of  girlhood  wrung  until 
the  gutters  are  full  of  the  ruddy  slime.  My  theme  is 
not  socialism  so  much  as  labor-reform  as  an  antidote 
to  socialism.  My  theme  is,  in  short,  justice  as  an 
antidote  to  the  dreams  of  political  heretics.  Until 
justice  is  held  up  as  a  broad  shield  against  the  darts 
of  all  insane  communists  and  infuriated  socialists,  we 


WAGES   AND   CHILDREN'S   RIGHTS.  209 

shall  be  pierced  again  and  again  with  arrows  like 
this  poisoned  one  which  I  hold  in  my  hand  [holding 
up  the  letter  cited  above],  and  lift  aloft  for  your 
execration.     [Applause.] 


VIII. 
NATURAL  AND  STARVATION  WAGES. 


THE   ONE   HUNDRED   AND   EIGHTEENTH   LECTURE   IN   THE 

BOSTON   MONDAY   LECTURESHIP,   DELIVERED  IN 

TREMONT   TEMPLE,   DEC.   23. 


Society  is  divided  into  two  classes,  the  shearers  and  the  shorn. 
"We  should  always  be  with  the  former,  against  the  latter.  —  Tai/- 

l^YKAJS^D. 

"We  have  profoundly  forgotten  everywhere  that  Cash-payment 
is  not  the  sole  relation  of  human  beings ;  we  think,  nothing  doubt- 
ing, that  it  absolves  and  liquidates  all  engagements  of  man.  "  My 
starving  workers ? "  answers  the  rich  Mill-owner:  "Did  not  I  hire 
them  fairly  in  the  market?  Did  I  not  pay  them,  to  the  last  six- 
pence, the  sum  covenanted  for?  What  have  I  to  do  with  them 
more  ?"  .  .  .  "When  Cain,  for  his  own  behoof,  had  killed  Abel,  and 
was  questioned,  "Where  is  thy  brother?"  he  too  made  answer, 
"  Am  I  my  brother's  keeper  ?  "  Did  I  not  pay  my  brother  his  wages, 
the  thing  he  had  merited  from  me  ?  O  sumptuous  Merchant-Prince, 
Illustrious  game-preserving  Duke,  is  there  no  way  of  '  killing '  thy 
brother  but  Cain's  rude  way!  —  Caaltlb. 


VIII. 
NATURAL  AND   STARVATION  WAGES. 

PEELTJDE   OX  CURRENT  EVENTS. 

Place  before  Mormonism  the  broad  shield  of 
State  rights,  and  very  possibly  that  defence  will  be 
vulnerable  only  by  the  bayonet.  Utah  once  admitted 
to  the  Union  will  govern  herself,  and  her  peculiar 
institutions  will  be  out  of  the  reach  of  Congress. 
Polygamy  imitates  slavery  in  seeking  to  intrench 
itself  behind  the  fateful  bulwarks  of  State  rights. 
Of  course  the  clamor  is  becoming  very  loud  for  the 
admission  of  Utah,  since  she  now  has  one  hundred 
and  thirty  thousand  people,  and  Nevada  was  admitted 
with  forty  thousand.  That  historic  political  party 
which  denounced  slavery  and  polygamy  as  twin  relics 
of  barbarism,  and  cut  the  former  of  these  cancers  off 
the  breast  of  America  by  the  long,  deep  plunges  of 
the  sword  through  live  years  of  civil  war,  is  no  longer 
in  power  in  Congress.  In  the  exigencies  of  political 
strife  a  time  may  easily  arrive  when  the  prize  of  two 
senators  and  several  representatives  will  induce  the 
dominant  party  at  Washington  to  admit  Utah  with 
polygamy.     The  agent  of  that  territory  is  authorized 

213 


214  LABOR. 

to  give  the  vote  of  Utah  to  the  party  which  admits 
her  with  her  peculiar  institutions.  Mormonism  pos- 
sessed of  State  rights,  and  defying  American  law,  is 
the  blackest  threat  in  the  low,  lurid  vapor  which  lies 
behind  Pike's  Peak  in  the  sunset.  Beyond  the  Mor- 
mon cloud  the  Chinese  question  spreads  itself  across 
the  deepest  western  sky,  as  a  dull,  thunderous, 
copper  haze.  So  distant,  however,  are  the  lightnings 
which  peer  fitfully  at  the  East  from  over  the  steru 
shoulders  of  the  Sierras  and  the  Rocky  Mountains, 
that  we  hear  little  of  the  local  thunders,  and  dream 
that  both  the  black  and  the  copper  cloud  will  dissolve 
soon,  and  without  storms.  In  precisely  this  indif- 
ference of  ours  to  these  distant  threats  lie  their  chief 
dangers. 

UntU  the  stains  of  slavery  and  of  Mexico  and  of 
Mormonism  are  erased  from  the  American  map,  the 
Northern  States,  with  their  mismanaged  large  cities, 
are  not  safe.  Wendell  Phillips  says  that  no  thought- 
ful man  can  feel  sure  that  one  flag  will  rule  this  belt 
of  the  continent  fifty  years  hence.  (^Nbrth  American 
Review^  August,  187C,  p.  101.)  The  education  of  the 
South  and  of  the  South-west  is  the  remaining  measure 
which  the  North  must  execute  for  the  preservation  of 
the  peace  of  the  land.  Every  year  it  becomes  more 
evident  that  America  is  to  stand  or  fall  according  as 
she  does  or  does  not  educate  the  South  and  Soutli-west. 
Until  the  dark  mass  of  illiteracy  is  greatly  whitened  on 
tlie  Gulf  and  along  the  Mexican  border  and  in  Utah, 
serious  trouble  may  arise  at  any  time  in  the  United 
States  from  the  collision  of  the  uneducated  portions 


NATURAL   AND   STARVATION   WAGES.  215 

with  tlie  educated.  The  deepest  shadows  on  that 
part  of  our  territory  which  was  once  Mexican  come 
from  Romanism  and  a  despotic  government.  The 
whole  region  of  the  lower  basin  between  the  Rocky- 
Mountains  and  the  Sierras  has  been  plonighed  and 
sown  by  Romanism  for  hundreds  of  years.  Into  this 
territory  Mormonism  is  spreading. 

What  is  Utah  worth  to  the  United  States  ?  Bend 
a  bow  along  the  Pacific  coast,  its  middle  at  San 
Francisco,  one  of  the  ends  at  Yellowstone  Park  and 
the  other  on  the  southern  hills  of  New  Mexico.  This 
colossal  arc  represents  a  volcanic  rift  along  which  are 
found  the  best  gold  and  silver  mines  of  America. 
The  Central  Pacific  Railway  is  the  arrow,  and  the 
Rocky  Mountain  range  is  the  drawn  strand  of  this 
bow.  San  Francisco  is  the  barb  of  the  arrow,  and 
Salt  Lake  City  is  the  chief  feather  on  the  shaft. 
The  string  of  the  bow  has  twisted  among  its  strands 
many  threads  of  silver  and  gold.  Utah,  in  short,  has 
a  central  position  in  the  most  important  mining 
region  on  the  planet.  A  railroad  is  to  connect  Ore- 
gon with  Mexico  through  the  Basin  States.  One 
railway  already  crosses  Utah  from  sunrise  to  sunset, 
and  so  she  is  at  the  intersection  of  two  great  ways. 
Men  in  Utah,  whose  judgment  is  to  be  respected, 
affirm  that  the  Southern  Pacific  Railroad  will  be 
drawn  into  Southern  Utah  by  the  value  of  her  coal 
and  lead  mines.  My  impression  is  that  the  silver  and 
gold  mines  in  New  Mexico  will  carry  that  new  rail- 
way south  of  Santa  F^.  But  the  Basin  States,  of 
which  Utah  is  the  heart,  will  ultimately  have  three  in- 


216  LABOR. 

tersections  of  the  Oregon  and  Mexico  Railway  with 
three  Pacific  roads.  President  Tenney,  in  his  breezy, 
keen  volume  on  the  New  West,  makes  that  title  cover 
both  the  Basin  and  the  Mountain  States,  —  or  Ari- 
zona, Nevada,  Idaho,  Utah,  New  Mexico,  Colorado, 
Wyoming,  and  Montana.  Utah  is  central  in  a  group 
of  undeveloped  commonwealths  containing  nearly  a 
third  of  the  territory  of  the  United  States.  The  New 
West  is  a  region  apparently  set  apart  by  geological 
circumstances  for  self-rule.  It  is  certainly  destined 
to  exliibit  anomalous  political  and  social  traits,  unless 
it  is  pierced  with  lines  of  intercommunication  from 
both  sunrise  and  sunset. 

What  has  happened  between  the  Sierras  and  the 
Rocky  Mountains  in  territory  thus  strategic  in  posi- 
tion? 

1.  In  1828  an  ignorant,  indolent,  and  not  reputable 
young  man,  named  Joseph  Smith,  born  in  1805,  at 
Sharon,  Vt.,  began  to  claim  that  he  was  a  prophet. 

2.  In  1830  he  announced  that  he  had  dug  out  of  a 
hill  in  Manchester,  in  New  York  State,  tlie  Book  of 
Mormon.  Although  his  fellow-conspirators,  desert- 
ing him,  denounced  this  claim  as  a  fraud,  he  pub- 
lished the  book,  and  began  to  collect  followers  among 
the  ignorant.  Certain  experiences  like  those  familiar 
now  in  Spiritualism,  which  was  not  tlien  known,  were 
among  tlie  misleading  supports  of  Smith's  pretensions. 
(See  Sten HOUSE,  Rocky  Mountain  Saints,  p.  33.) 

3.  lie  and  liis  associates  were  driven  in  1838  from 
Kirtland,  O.,  where  he  failed  as  president  of  a  bank. 

4.  Ilia  debaucheries  were  denounced  by  some  of 


NATURAL  AND   STARVATION  WAGES.  217 

his  followers;  and  in  1843  he  pretended  to  receive  a 
revelation  in  favor  of  polygamy. 

5.  Razing  to  the  ground  the  office  of  a  newspaper 
which  exposed  his  immoralities,  he  was  shot  dead  by 
a  mob  at  Carthage,  111.,  in  1844. 

6.  Expelled  from  Nauvoo,  111.,  in  1844,  the  Mor- 
mons, under  Brigham  Young,  reached  Salt  Lake  in 
July,  1847.  The  territory  then  belonged  to  Mexico, 
but  it  became  a  part  of  the  United  States  in  March, 
1848. 

7.  Originally  denounced  by  the  Book  of  Mormon, 
polygamy  was  introduced  by  Young  as  an  institution 
in  1852. 

8.  Notwithstanding  the  death  of  Brigham  Young 
in  1877,  the  despotic  hierarchy  which  he  founded,  and 
which  is  supported  by  a  severe  tithing  system,  a  mer- 
ciless secret  police,  and  the  powei  of  life  and  death,  is 
successful  in  carrying  forward  his  work,  both  in  its 
political  and  its  social  aspect. 

There  have  been  more  Mormon  marriages  in  Utah 
in  the  last  two  years  than  ever  before  in  the  same 
length  of  time.  Polygamous  marriages  are  contracted 
in  temples  called  endowment-houses.  These  are 
being  erected  throughout  the  territory  in  large  num- 
bers and  at  great  expense.  No  Gentile  is  permitted 
to  enter  them.  Even  apostates  will  not  reveal  the 
oaths  taken  in  the  Mormon  endowment-houses ;  and, 
to  maintain  contracts  made  there,  witnesses  and  juries 
perjure  themselves. 

9.  Three  or  four  hundred  missionaries  are  con- 
stantly at  work  abroad ;  and  they  induced  some  two 


218  LABOR. 

thousand  Mormon  emigrants  to  come  to  this  country 
between  April  and  October  in  1878. 

10.  The  Mormons  have  the  balance  of  power  in 
Idaho,  and  are  acquiring  influence  rapidly  in  Arizona 
and  Colorado. 

11.  It  is  estimated  that  there  are  now  two  hundred 
thousand  Mormons  in  Utah  and  its  vicinity,  and  fifty 
thousand  in  other  countries. 

12.  Thus  it  happens  that  between  the  Rocky 
Mountains  and  the  Sierras  there  is  a  district  larger 
than  New  England,  in  which  a  majority  of  the  popu- 
lation teaches  its  children  that,  — 

(1)  God  has  a  bodily  form. 

(2)  He  is  the  celestial  patron  of  polygamy. 

(3)  Jesus  was  a  pattern  to  his  disciples  in  this 
respect. 

(4)  Polygamy  on  earth  gives  rank  in  heaven. 

(5)  Mothers  should  be  responsible  for  the  support 
of  their  children. 

(6)  Mother  and  daughter  may  be  wives  of  one 
husband.  (See  the  Mormon  Catechism,  passim^  and 
also  President  Tenney,  Circulars  of  Colorado  College^ 
December,  1878.) 

This  is  the  Mormon  ulcer,  fattening  itself  on  the 
iiitermurjil  basin  between  the  Rocky  Mountains  and 
tlie  Sierras.  Utah  is  the  American  Syria.  Let  the 
soil  have  due  irrigation,  and  it  needs  only  to  be 
tickled  with  the  hoe,  as  the  proverb  says,  in  order  to 
langh  into  harvests.  You  say  the  sage-bush  is  a  mark 
of  desolation  ;  but  irrigate  the  pastures  covered  with 
it,  and  you  have  bountiful  harvests.     As  in  Syria, 


NATURAL  AND   STARVATION  WAGES.  219 

when  you  irrigate  the  Jericho  plain,  you  have  most 
vigorous  growths,  and  as  on  the  plain  of  Gennesaret 
there  were  originally  growths  reminding  one  of  the 
vegetation  on  the  borders  of  the  Nile,  so  to-day  irri- 
gation gives  extraordinary  fruitfulness  to  the  culti- 
vated lands  of  Utah. 

What  is  the  strength  of  Mormonism  ?  I  find  that 
this  cancer  has  five  roots,  and  the  first  is  the  hierarch- 
al  organization  of  the  Mormon  ecclesiastical  power. 
One  in  five  of  the  Mormons  is  a  church  officer.  The 
highest  officer  is  not  only  a  governor  possessed  of 
nearly  absolute  power,  but  also  a  prophet ;  and  he  at 
any  time  may  receive  a  revelation  reversing  all  past 
revelations.  If  you  could  smite  away  the  hierarchal 
organization  of  Mormonism  in  its  lower  ranges,  it 
would  still  have  power  as  long  as  the  belief  of  the 
average  Mormon  in  his  prophet  should  continue. 
But  pulverize  that  keystone,  and  you  cause  the 
whole  arch  to  tumble.  Let  the  average  Mormon  be 
convinced  that  his  prophet  is  no  more  in  communion 
with  the  Unseen  Power  than  any  man  may  be,  let 
the  pretension  of  the  JNIormon  hierarchy  to  enlight- 
enment by  revelations  from  on  high  be  once  discred- 
ited, and  Mormonism,  so  far  as  it  is  a  system  of 
thought,  becomes  a  heap  of  nonsense.  In  smiting  at 
this  keystone,  we  need  to  use  educational  weapons. 

A  second  root  of  Mormonism  is  its  connection 
with  land-speculations.  Go  to  Europe,  enter  the 
peasant  homes  of  Norway  and  Sweden,  and  you  will 
find  jMormon  agents  whispering  in  the  ears  of  credu- 
lous ignorance  that  Mr.  Smith  and  Mr.  Jones,  who 


220  LABOR. 

were  once  neighbors  of  the  peasants  addressed,  now 
have  lands  in  Utah,  and  that  the  Mormon  Church 
gave  it  to  them.  Pinched  men  and  women  are  told 
that  if  they  will  go  to  America,  and  unite  with  the 
Mormon  Church,  they  shall  have  land.  The  emigrant, 
harassed  by  poverty,  finds  that  he  does  acquire 
property  in  land  in  Utah,  and  that  he  is  indebted  for 
his  protection  in  his  home  and  for  his  political  privi- 
leges to  the  Mormon  Church.  In  his  ignorance,  it 
may  be  years  before  he  ascertains  that  the  homestead 
law  of  the  United  States  has  been  behind  this  Mor- 
mon trick.  It  is  understood  perfectly  well  that  the 
Mormon  agents  abroad  promise  in  their  own  name 
what  the  government  promises  to  emigrants  in  the 
way  of  land. 

A  third  root  of  Mormonisra  is  its  political  self-rule. 
This  root  has  been  fed  more  tlian  once  with  blood. 
Mormonism  has  lived  in  the  wilderness,  and  has  been 
able  to  do  as  it  pleased  because  it  was  out  of  sight 
of  civilization.  Official  investigations  preceding  the 
execution  in  1877  of  John  D.  Lee  for  the  Mountain 
Meadows  massacre  of  1857,  sliowed  that  the  larger 
part  of  tlie  stories  which  have  been  told  us  in  books, 
of  cruelties  to  the  Gentile  emigrants  into  Utah,  are 
substantially  true.  I  credit  the  assertion  that  the 
avenging  angels  among  tlie  Mormons  meant  to  keep 
Gentile  emigrants  out  of  the  territory,  and  that  they 
not  infretjuently  employed  murder  of  unoffending  set- 
tlers as  a  political  weapon.  I  believe  that  if  Brigham 
Young  had  had  his  deserts  according  to  law,  he  would 
have  passed  into  the  next  world  earlier  than  he  did. 


NATURAL   AND   STAEVATION   WAGES.  221 

[Applause.]  So  far  away  on  the  border  behind  the 
Rocky  Mountains,  and  close  under  the  Sierras,  the 
power  of  the  United  States  was  so  weak  that  Brig- 
ham  Young  once  drove  out  every  United  States 
officer  from  his  territory,  and  then  said,  "  I  am  and 
shall  be  governor  until  God  Almighty  says,  'Brig- 
ham,  you  need  be  governor  no  longer.' "  God  Al- 
mighty has  said  that,  but  the  American  Church  and 
American  politics  never  said  it. 

A  fourth  deep  root  of  the  Mormon  power  is  igno- 
rance. Go  into  that  tabernacle  in  Salt  Lake  City, 
and  look  into  the  faces  of  the  people,  and  you  will 
be  reminded  of  what  you  see  in  Castle  Garden.  Go 
to  the  end  of  New  York  City,  and  look  at  the  emi- 
grants in  the  great  building  there,  and  you  will  be 
reminded  of  what  you  see  in  the  Salt  Lake  City 
Tabernacle.  Mormonism  recruits  itself  from  an  often 
illiterate  emigrant  population,  and  it  forbids  any  but 
the  most  inefficient  parochial  schools.  Mormon 
leaders  have  usually  been  Americans.  I  do  not 
accuse  all  the  ringleaders  of  being  dishonest.  I 
suppose  that  some  of  them  are  thoroughly  sincere; 
but  it  would  be  a  miracle,  if,  in  a  republic  as  large  as 
ours,  there  were  not  eccentrics  and  fools  enough  to 
officer  Utah,  —  women,  some  of  them.  Thomas  Car- 
lyle  said  there  were  thirty  millions  of  people  in 
Great  Britain,  mostly  fools.  In  the  United  States, 
such  is  the  condition  of  education,  that  it  is  no  mira- 
cle at  all,  that  women  of  the  class  which  sees  visions 
here  should  see  visions  in  Utah,  and  that  under 
religious  excitement  and  the  power  of  custom,  some 


222  LABOR. 

of  them  should  at  last  crush  out  the  deepest  instincts 
of  the  feminine  nature,  and  appear  to  be  content  in 
a  life  fit  only  for  beasts.  I  am  speaking  very  cau- 
tiously, I  am  weighing  all  ray  syllables,  when  I  say 
that  there  is  at  present  in  Utah  no  statute  law  against 
seduction  or  adultery.  In  Southern  Utah  mothers 
and  daughters  are  often  wives  of  one  husband.  This 
is  the  ghastly  barbarism  to  which  the  Gentile  ladies 
of  Utah,  in  a  petition  to  Congress,  have  lately  called 
national  attention,  and  I  am  speaking  in  support  of 
their  petition.  Brigham  Young  once  told  an  audience 
in  the  Salt  Lake  City  Tabernacle  that  men  are  not  to 
be  required  to  take  care  of  their  children.  The  most 
odious  and  abominable  form  of  the  leper's  philosophy 
is  that  which  puts  upon  the  mother  the  sole  care  of 
her  offspring.  Even  our  most  loathsome  cancer- 
planters  commonly  clamor  for  State  aid  in  the  sup- 
port of  illegitimate  children ;  but  Brigham  Young 
and  Mormonism  generally  stand  on  the  proposition 
that  it  is  the  mother's  duty  to  provide  for  her  family ! 

A  fifth  root  of  Mormonism  is  its  isolation;  and, 
thank  God,  the  progress  of  civilization  westward  is 
now  cutting  that  root. 

Isolation,  however,  as  we  have  now  seen,  is  not  the 
only  root  of  Mormonism.  If  we  are  to  remove  this 
cancer  from  the  great  intermural  basin,  we  must 
strike  at  the  other  roots,  —  ignorance  the  chief  one, 
and  political  self-rule.  Congress  is  conspicuously 
riglit  in  keeping  out  of  the  Union  the  twin  relic 
of  barbarism.  [Applause.]  The  American  people, 
while  in  its  senses,  will  never  be  ready  to  take  into 


NATURAL   AND   STAllVATION   WAGES.  223 

the  Senate  of  the  United  States,  as  successors  to  men 
who  have  glorified  that  place,  Mormon  representa- 
tives with  six  or  twenty  wives  apiece.  We  have 
been  sufficiently  scandalized  by  the  territorial  agent 
now  in  Washington,  and  by  his  four  wives. 

More  than  at  any  other  root,  however,  we  need  to 
strike  at  the  ignorance  of  the  Mormon  population. 
We  must  treat  this  territory  with  a  style  of  Chris- 
tian charity  like  that  with  which  we  have  treated 
other  portions  of  the  West,  and  with  an  even  more 
sternly  massed  Christian  front.  You  cannot  carry 
Christian  institutions  into  Utah  without  a  much 
more  compact  massing  of  your  soldiers  than  you  had 
when  you  carried  schools  and  churches  into  Illinois 
and  Ohio.  In  Utah  there  is  a  linked  and  audacious 
hierarchy  to  meet  you  at  every  step.  In  New  Mexico 
you  are  in  the  presence  of  the  Jesuits  and  of  a  popu- 
lation long  steeped  in  Catholicism.  There  and  in 
Utah  you  must  have  schools  as  well  as  churches ;  you 
must  have  the  teacher  as  well  as  the  minister,  and  you 
must  support  both  more  generously  than  you  did  in 
Iowa  or  even  in  Kansas.  The  conditions  are  very 
peculiar  in  Utah,  and  we  need  a  peculiar  sharpen- 
ing of  our  attack ;  and  unless  we  sharpen  the  attack, 
and  push  it  boldly,  Utah  will  be  in  the  Union  with 
her  peculiar  institutions,  and  then  God  knows  wheth- 
er there  may  not  be  need  of  a  civil  contest  to  set 
the  State  in  order. 

What  are  we  to  do  for  the  educational  institutions 
how  springing  up  in  our  Western  intermural  basin  ? 
What  have  we   there   already?     Colorado  College, 


224  LABOR. 

an  institution  of  which  I  cannot  mention  the  name 
without  petitions  to  Almighty  Providence  for  its 
success !  It  is  not  fully  on  its  feet,  but  is  slowly 
rising  to  a  commanding  position,  and  begins  to  lift 
up  its  hand  in  blessing  over  Mormon  and  Gentile 
populations.  Mexico  sees  this  rising  angel  as  he 
stands  on  the  Rocky  Mountain  ranges.  Idaho,  Ari- 
zona, Nevada,  Wyoming,  Montana,  see  him.  Mor- 
monism  sees  him  and  trembles  in  Utah,  and  so  does 
Jesuitism  in  New  Mexico.  This  angel,  although  not 
yet  on  its  feet,  has  reached  out  his  hand  to  Salt 
Lake  City,  and  planted  there  an  academy,  and  at 
Sante  Fe  has  planted  another ;  and  from  Lowell,  in 
this  Commonwealth,  a  professor  has  gone  to  Salt 
Lake  Academy.  It*  already  has  eighty  pupils,  al- 
though that  school  is  not  eight  months  old,  and  half 
of  these  students  are  Mormons.  Presbyterians  and 
Methodists  have  made  an  excellent  beginning  in  pro- 
viding education  for  tlie  Territory.  There  is  an 
Episcopalian  school  in  Salt  Lake  City,  with  nine 
teachers  in  it  who  were  Mormons.  Give  the  Mormon 
youth  education  enough  to  awaken  their  human  in- 
stincts, and  they  will  resent  the  destruction  of  the 
home.  Pol3'gamy  is  becoming  unpopular  with  the 
younger  chiss  of  Mormon  believers.  Indeed,  if  I  had 
liad  a  mother  who  was  onl}'  an  eighth  part  of  a  wife, 
and  had  seen  her  abused  under  the  tyrannies  of  the 
Mormon  hierarchy,  my  impression  is  that  I  should 
have  ceased  to  be  a  Mormon,  liad  I  been  brouglit  up 
one.  The  subtle  operation  of  the  evil  of  Mormonism 
is  to  di.sgust  the  younger  population  with  that  insti- 


NATURAL  AND   STARVATION   WAGES.'  225 

tution.  If  you  educate  the  young  Mormon  genera- 
tions, it  is  not  impossible  that  soon  you  may  have  a 
new  revelation  from  the  head  of  the  Mormon  hier- 
archy, and  that  it  will  be  against  polygamy.  [Ap- 
plause.] 

Let  us  so  support  schools  in  the  New  West,  that 
they  will  take  no  craven  or  apologetic  attitude  before 
either  Romanism  or  Mormonism.  Let  us  pour  funds 
into  the  treasury  of  Colorado  College,  and  Salt  Lake 
Academy,  and  Santa  F^  Academy,  and  other  similar 
institutions  in  Utah  and  New  Mexico. 

The  Mormon  problem,  I,  for  one,  do  not  expect  to 
see  settled,  unless  by  the  school  or  by  the  sword. 
The  choice  is  between  the  keen  edge  of  the  sword 
and  the  keen  edge  of  the  Oliristian  school.  God  give 
us  such  wisdom  that  he  may  not  need  at  last  to  send 
the  sword  to  cut  the  Mormon  cancer  out  of  our  sun- 
set shoulder !     [Applause.] 

THE  LECTUEE. 

One  of  the  earls  of  Warwick  Castle,  a  king-maker, 
was  killed  in  a  civil  broil ;  and  the  fierce  old  feudal 
spirit  caused  his  body  to  be  exposed  naked  for  three 
days  on  the  floor  of  St.  Paul's  in  London.  Rough  as 
his  age  was,  an  earl  of  Kenilworth  Castle  founded  on 
his  great  estate  an  establishment  for  the  aged  soldiers 
who  had  been  with  him  in  his  wars.  Feudalism  once 
was  so  cruel  that  the  baron  had  the  right  to  kill  two 
peasants  in  order  to  warm  his  feet  in  their  blood ;  but 
this  cannibalism  grew  so  soft  at  last,  even  in  the  dark 
middle  ages,  that  it  became   social   degradation  to 


226  LABOR. 

neglect  the  aged,  to  snatch  out  of  life  the  strength 
of  youth  and  manhood,  and  then  leave  advanced 
years  to  shift  for  themselves.  The  hereditary,  ter- 
ritorial, feudal  aristocracy  thought  itself  bound  by 
interest,  or  certainly  by  custom,  to  take  care  of  age ; 
and  it  fixed  the  mark  of  social  infamy  upon  any 
leader  who  did  not  protect  those  who  had  followed  him 
in  their  manhood.  Feudalism  has  vanished  out  of 
Europe.  It  has  never  planted  its  hoofs  on  American 
soU ;  or,  at  least,  if  it  hovered  for  a  while  over  this 
continent,  the  impact  of  its  split  feet  was  so  light 
that  the  tracery  of  the  imprint  is  now  almost 
removed.  De  Tocqueville  ventures  to  affirm  that 
the  modern  manufacturing  aristocracy,  which  to  a 
large  extent  has  taken  the  place  of  the  hereditary 
and  territorial,  differs  from  the  old  feudal  aristocracy 
in  that  it  feels  no  responsibility  for  the  age  of  its  de- 
pendants. Give  us  the  best  service  of  youth ;  crush 
out  the  right  of  children  to  a  fair  education  in  pri- 
mary branches ;  give  us  the  strength  of  the  girl  be- 
fore her  powers  have  been  fully  confirmed ;  give  us 
the  strength  of  mothers  when  their  lives  draw  near  to 
dangerous  physical  crises;  give  us  the  strength  of 
manhood  up  to  the  last  hour  in  which  it  can  labor 
remuneratively ;  and  then  let  the  ruined  girl,  let  the 
mother  in  her  weakness,  let  old  age  in  its  dependence, 
shift  for  themselves.  This  is  a  terrific  indictment 
against  the  modern  system  of  wages,  which  I  do  not 
attiick,  but  which  many  do.  If  I  put  before  you  in 
outline  some  of  the  reasons  why  that  system  is 
attacked,  you  will  have  patience  with  me,  perhaps, 


NATURAL  AND   STARVATION  WAGES.  227 

while  I  go  on  to  claim  that  natural  wages  must,  at 
the  least,  be  twice  the  cost  of  the  unprepared  food 
of  the  laborer.  I  have  age  in  mind  ;  I  have  children's 
rights  in  mind;  I  have  mothers'  rights  in  mind. 
I  have  American  standards  of  living  and  universal 
suffrage  in  mind.  I  arrive  at  the  conclusion  that 
justice  is  not  dangerous  to  capital.  As,  in  the  old 
feudal  aristocracy,  justice  was  the  glory  of  the  order, 
so  in  the  new  aristocracy,  justice  is  the  glory  of 
wealth  and  power.  As,  in  the  old  aristocracy,  infamy 
was  inflicted  on  any  leader  who  neglected  the  inter- 
ests of  age,  when  the  strength  of  manhood  had  served 
him ;  so  in  the  new  aristocracy,  more  cruel  than  the 
old,  social  infamy  ought  to  be  imprinted  on  any 
legislation,  and  on  any  leader  of  politics  or  of  manu- 
factures, that  neglects  the  interests  of  age,  when 
manhood  has  given  its  best  strength  to  that  leader. 
[Applause.] 

1.  The  cost  of  producing  labor  should  determine 
the  price  of  labor. 

2.  The  cost  of  producing  labor  includes  that  of 
rearing  a  family. 

3.  The  cost  of  rearing  a  family  depends  on  the 
standard  of  comfort  and  decency,  below  which  labor- 
ers will  not  go,  or  ought  not  to  go. 

Of  course  I  recognize  the  -distinction  between  these 
two  standards.  What  ought  to  be,  however,  is  what 
in  America  must  be,  if  our  instikitions  are  to  endure 
under  universal  suffrage.     [Applause.] 

4.  In  a  republic  under  universal  suffrage,  the  cost 
of  living  ought  to  include  the  expense  of  educating 


228  LABOB. 

children  in  the  common  schools  up  to  fifteen  years  of 
age. 

5.  It  ought  to  include  the  expense  of  keeping 
"mves  at  home  to  take  charge  of  little  children. 

6.  It  ought  to  include  a  fair  support  for  old  age, 
in  case  temperance,  industry,  and  economy  have 
marked  the  habits  of  the  laborer. 

The  slovenly  spendthrift,  the  drunkard,  ought  to 
suffer.  I  make  no  plea  for  dissipation.  Shiftless- 
ness  deserves  the  workhouse  in  nine  cases  out  of 
ten. 

7.  It  will  be  found  that  wages  less  than  twice  the 
cost  of  the  unprepared  food  of  the  laborer  will  not 
meet  the  demands  of  the  American  standard  of  living. 

8.  When  wages  are  by  any  considerable  degree 
lower  than  this  standard  requires,  it  is  found  that 
American  populations  of  native  birth  do  not  increase 
fast  enough  to  make  up  for  the  inevitable  and  inces- 
sant loss  of  labor  from  death  and  disability. 

9.  As  a  means  of  preventing  such  a  multiplication 
of  population  as  shall  make  the.  supply  of  labor 
greater  than  the  demand,  it  is  politically  and  indus- 
trially prudent  to  build  up  in  popular  estimation  a 
high  and  advancing  standard  of  living. 

10.  There  should  be  no  interference  by  law  with 
the  rate  of  wages  for  adult  males;  but  public  dis- 
cussion and  working-men's  organizations  are  to  be 
encouraged  in  the  demand  for  natural  wages. 

11.  Natural  wages  would  prevent  the  formation  of 
an  ignorant  class. 

12.  They  would  diminish  the  ;  izo  of  the  unem- 
ployed, discontented,  and  explosive  class. 


NATURAL   AND   STARVATION   WAGES.  229 

13.  They  would  destroy  the  power  of  demagogues. 

14.  They  would  increase  the  expenses  of  the  work- 
ing classes. 

15.  They  would  increase  the  gains  of  capitalists. 

16.  By  removing  the  chief  perils  of  universal  suf- 
frage, and  giving  justice  free  course  in  the  relations 
of  capital  and  labor,  natural  wages  would  make 
America  an  organizing  and  redemptive  political 
example  to  the  world;  and  nothing  else  will. 
[Applause.] 

It  will  be  noticed  that  in  these  propositions  I  am 
defining  natural  wages  under  the  American  standard 
of  living,  and  not  necessary  wages  under  the  Japan- 
ese or  the  Chinese  scale  of  expenses.  The  definition 
given  in  these  propositions  accords,  however,  with 
the  best  authorities.  In  his  superb  work  on  "  The 
Wages  Question"  (p.  112),  you  will  find  Professor 
Walker  of  Yale  College  maintaining  that  "  the  whole 
significance  of  the  term  '  necessary  wages '  is,  that, 
in  order  to  the  supply  of  labor  being  maintained, 
wages  must  be  paid  which  will  not  only  enable  the 
laboring  class  to  subsist  according  to  the  standard  of 
comfort  and  decency,  or  of  discomfort  and  indecency, 
it  may  be,  which  they  set  up  for  themselves  as  that 
below  which  they  will  not  go,  but  will  also  dispose 
them  to  propagate  sufficiently  to  make  up  the  inevita- 
ble, incessant  loss  from  death  or  disability." 

Your  Labor  Bureau  affirms  (^Report  for  1875,  p. 
445)  that  "it  seems  natural  and  just  that  a  man's 
labor  should  be  worth,  and  that  his  wages  should  be, 
as  much  as,  with  economy  and  prudence,  will  com- 


230  LABOR. 

fortably  maintain  himself  and  family,  enable  him  to 
educate  his  children,  and  also  to  lay  by  enough  for 
his  decent  support  when  his  laboring  powers  have 
failed."  (See  also  Professor  Bonamy  Price,  Prac- 
tical Political  Economy^  p.  225.) 

Dr.  Engel  of  Berlin  has  shown  that  in  Prussia  a 
person  with  an  income  of  seven  hundred  and  fifty  dol- 
lars a  year  spends  fifty  per  cent  of  this  sum  for  food 
alone.     (See  Walker,  The  Wages  Question^  p.  117.) 

It  was  my  fortune  to  maintain  on  this  platform 
more  than  a  year  ago  (^Boston  Monday  Lectures  on 
Consciences  Preludes  I.  and  II.),  that  food  unprepared 
costs  nearly  half  as  much  as  the  other  necessary 
expenses  of  a  family  living  according  to  the  Ameri- 
can -standard.  I  suppose  I  do  not  carry  the  assent 
of  this  audience  when  I  take  my  stand  on  that  prop- 
osition; and  therefore  I  shall  this  morning  occupy 
a  few  of  your  precious  minutes  in  a  dry  analytical 
discussion  in  proof  of  that  one  assertion.  You 
accuse  this  platform  of  using  rhetoric ;  but  if,  when 
delivering  a  statistical  lecture,  I  am  exceedingly  dry 
and  cool,  you  say  the  discussion  is  low  and  ordinary. 
Now,  I  wish  it  to  be  lower  and  more  ordinary  than 
ever  for  a  quarter  of  an  hour. 

Here  is  the  official  report  of  your  Bureau  of  Labor 
for  1875,  and  it  contains  a  list  of  the  replies  made 
by  three  hundred  and  ninety-seven  families  in  this 
Commonwealth  in  1874  to  questions  concerning  their 
earnings  and  expenses.  The  replies  were  not  re- 
ceived merely  in  answer  to  circulars ;  but  your 
agents  went  into  manufacturing  towns  in  this  State, 


NATURAL  AND   STARVATION   WAGES.  231 

buttonholed  working-men,  went  home  with  them 
after  tlieir  hours  of  labor  were  over,  gave  the  re- 
spondents opportunity  to  consult  their  note-books,  and 
so  obtained  answers  to  questions  on  a  great  variety 
of  points  concerning  the  earnings  and  expenses  of 
the  class  depending  on  wages.  No  commonwealth 
in  history  has  gathered  social  statistics  as  carefully  as 
has  Massachusetts.  I  know  that  prices  were  higher 
in  1874  than  they  now  are,  and  so  possibly  four  hun- 
dred and  twenty-two  dollars  is  too  large  a  figure  for 
the  unprepared  food  of  a  family  to-day;  but  the 
relation  between  the  price  of  food  and  the  price  of 
other  articles,  and  that  between  the  cost  of  living 
and  the  purchasing  power  of  a  day's  labor,  have 
not  very  greatly  changed.  It  is  the  proportion  to 
which  I  call  attention,  rather  than  to  the  figures 
on  any  one  point.  My  topic  is  the  lowest-paid 
labor ;  but  I  accept  a  disadvantage  in  the  argument 
by  occasionally  quoting  examples  from  the  ranks 
of  skilled  labor.  I  put  before  you  the  expenses  and 
earnings  of  families  out  of  several  different  trades 
in  this  Commonwealth;  and,  if  you  doubt  the  rec- 
ord in  any  case,  you  can  go  to  the  Labor  Bureau, 
take  the  number  of  the  record  here,  and  find  the 
signature  of  the  head  of  the  family.  Every  rec- 
ord here  is  paralleled  with  written  records  in  the 
bureau  at  33  Pemberton  Square  in  this  city,  and  can 
be  verified  legally,  if  you  please,  by  sufficient  trouble 
being  expended  upon  the  case.  I  regard  the  recent 
reports  of  the  bureau  as  utterly  unpartisan.  They 
are  as  cool  as  the  multiplication-table,  and  as  un- 
t        answerable. 


232 


LABOR. 


No.  1.                              BEICKLAYER.                      German. 
Earnings  of  father $810  00 

Condition.  —  Family  numbers  five :  parents,  and  three  chil- 
dren from  eight  months  to  seven  years  of  age  ;  one  goes  to 
school.  Occupy  a  tenement  of  four  rooms,  well  located,  and 
with  good  surroundings.  The  house  is  well  furnished,  and  the 
parlor  carpeted.     Own  a  piano.     Family  dresses  well. 

Food.  —  Breakfast :  bread,  butter,  meat,  and  coffee.  Din- 
ner :  meat  or  fish,  potatoes,  bread,  pie.  Supper :  bread,  butter, 
gingerbread,  tea. 


Cost  of  Uving    . 

.  8810  00 

Rent   . 

.8204  00 

Boots  and  shoes 

.      3050 

Fuel   . 

.      49  GO 

Clothing     . 

.      42  00 

Groceries   . 

.    330  49 

Dry  goods  . 

.      24  00 

Meat  . 

.      81  22 

Papers 

8  00 

Fish    .       .       . 

960 

Societies     . 

.      10  00 

Milk   . 

.      18  00 

Sundries     . 

.      12  59 

Here  groceries,  meat,  fish,  and  milk,  as  you  uotiee, 
cost  ^28,  or  slightly  more  than  half  of  $810,  the 
total  cost  of  living. 

No.  3.                             CARPENTER.                    American. 
Earninga  of  father 8686  00 

Condition.  —  Family  numbers  four :  parents,  and  two  chil- 
dren from  one  to  five  years  of  age ;  one  goes  to  school.  Live 
in  a  tenement  of  five  rooms,  pleasantly  located  and  surrounded. 
The  apartments  are  well  furnished  and  carpeted.  Have  a  sew- 
ing-machine.    Family  dresses  well,  and  attends  church. 

Food.  —  Breakfast :  bread,  butter,  meat,  eggs,  cake,  and 
coffee.  Dinner:  bread,  butter,  meat,  potatoes,  vegetables  in 
season,  pie,  and  tea.  Supper:  bread,  butter,  cake,  sauce,  and 
tea. 

Cost  of  living JGSG  O* 

Root 8100  00 1  Groceries   .       .       .       .    208  19 

Fuel 43  80 1  Meat 101  14 


NATURAL  AND   STARVATION  WAGES. 


233 


Fish $8  00 

Milk 28  40 

Boots  and  shoes        .        .  27  00 

Clothing     .        .        .        .  84  00 


Dry  goods 
Papers 
Religion 
Sundries 


$24  00 

9  00 

12  00 

40  00 


In  this  case  the  food  of  the  family  costs  $345,  or 
almost  precisely  half  the  whole  cost  of  living. 

No.  58.                             BOOTMAKER.                     American. 
Earnings  of  father $660  00 

Condition.  —  Family  numbers  five  :  parents,  and  three  chil- 
dren from  two  to  nine  years  of  age  ;  two  go  to  school.  Occu- 
py a  tenement  of  five  rooms  in  a  healthy  locality,  with  good 
surroundings.  House  is  well  furnished,  with  the  parlor  car- 
peted. Have  a  sewing-machine.  Family  dresses  well.  Had 
sickness  in  the  family  last  year,  which  was  the  cause  of  their 
running  in  debt. 

Food. — Breakfast:  bread  and  butter,  meat  or  eggs,  cake, 
coffee.  Dinner:  brown  bread  and  butter,  meat  and  potatoes, 
vegetables,  pickles,  pie,  and  tea.  Supper:  bread  and  butter, 
sauce,  cake,  tea. 

Cost  of  living $712  50 


Rent $120  00 

Fuel 42  75 

Groceries    .        .        .        .    319  29 

Meat 82  00 

Milk 15  46 


Boots  and  shoes  .  .  10  00 
Clothing  .  .  .  .  47  00 
Dry  goods  .  .  .  .  20  00 
Sundries,  including  doctor's 

bill         .        .        .        .      55  50 


Notice  that  the  food  here  costs  $416,  or  more  than 
half  the  total  earnings  of  the  father,  and  that  the 
family  in  consequence  has  fallen  into  debt  on  account 
of  a  little  sickness. 

No.  77.  SHOEMAKER.  American. 

Earnings  of  father $480  00 

son,  aged  sixteen      .......    230  00 

son,  aged  fourteen 180  00 

$890  00 


234 


LABOB. 


Condition.  —  Family  numbers  five :  parents  and  three  chil- 
dren. One  goes  to  school  all  the  time,  and  the  other  when 
business  is  dull.  Father  intends  to  let  them  have  three 
months'  schooling  every  year.  Have  a  nice  tenement  of  six 
rooms,  about  ten  minutes'  walk  from  the  shop,  in  a  good  neigh- 
borhood and  healthy  locality.  The  house  is  well  furnished, 
and  parlor  carpeted.  Have  a  sewing  and  other  labor-saving 
machines.  Family  dresses  well.  The  father  worked  eight 
months  last  year,  and  earned  from  twelve  to  seventeen  dollars 
per  week.  He  hoped  that  the  bureau  would  correct  a  false 
statement  that  had  been  published  in  several  papers,  that  shoe- 
makers averaged  eighteen  dollars  per  week,  as  such  a  correction 
was  needed. 

Food.  —  Breakfast :  hot  biscuit,  bread,  butter,  fried  ham  or 
eggs  or  cheese,  cake,  and  coffee.  Dinner:  bread,  butter,  beef, 
mutton,  or  fresh  pork,  potatoes,  vegetables,  pudding  or  pie,  and 
tea.  Supper:  bread,  butter,  cheese,  cake,  meat  (if  any  left  from 
dinner),  and  tea.  Baked  beans  on  Sunday,  and  fish  one  day  in 
the  week. 


Cost  of  living 
Rent   . 
Fuel    . 
Groceries   . 
Meat  and  fish 
Milk    . 


8200  00 

48  50 

364  90 

70  75 

15  00 


Clothing     . 
Dry  goods  . 
Boots  and  shoes 
Sundries     . 


S822  15 
G8  00 
18  00 
17  00 
20  00 


Here  is  a  son,  fourteen  yeai's  old,  earning  $180. 
There  is  great  temptation  in  that  family  to  keep 
this  son  out  of  school.  It  is  said  that  in  Switzerland 
it  costs  ten  pounds  a  year  to  keep  out  of  school  a 
child  between  twelve  and  fourteen  years  of  age. 
The  Swiss  law  requires  that  children  should  be  in 
school,  and  poor  families  lose  a  considerable  sum  by 
obeying  the  law.  In  Massachusetts  the  law  requires 
children  to  be  in  school  up  to  a  certain  age ;  and  this 
family,  for  instance,  would  lose  islSO  by  keeping  that 


NATURAL  AND   STARVATION  WAGES.  235 

son  under  fifteen  at  school  all  the  while.  But  if 
you  take  out  the  earnings  of  that  son,  this  family- 
will  fall  into  debt.  Which  shall  it  do,  send  the  son 
to  school,  or  incur  debt  ? 

When  we  think  how  demagogues  obtain  votes  out 
of  an  explosive  and  ignorant  population  to-day,  we 
need  look  forward  no  further  than  1880,  and  the 
possible  Presidential  issues,  to  prove  that  there  is 
timeliness  in  every  topic  of  this  kind.  President 
Woolsey  has  just  begun  in  "  The  New  York  Inde- 
pendent "  a  discussion  of  socialism.  There  are  signs 
all  around  the  horizon  that  this  topic  must  come  up. 
Professor  Hitchcock  of  New  York  has  lately  pub- 
lished on  socialism  a  book  fit  to  take  the  rank  of 
a  classic  in  the  literature  on  tliis  subject.  The  other 
night  in  Brooklyn  Dr.  Storrs's  church  was  packed 
to  the  roof  to  hear  discussions  by  Professor  Hitch- 
cock and  Dr.  Storrs  on  this  theme.  "  The  Atlantic 
Monthly  "  opens  its  pages  to  the  topic.  Congress  ap- 
points investigating  committees  concerning  it.  Hav- 
ing in  mind  the  possible  issues  in  the  Presidential 
conflicts  not  only  of  1880,  but  of  the  crowded 
twentieth  century,  you  will  pardon  me  if  I  try  to 
dampen  the  powder  which  demagogues  are  sure  to 
attempt  to  explode.     [Applause.] 

No.  80.                             SHOEMAKER.                     American. 
Earnings  of  father $552  00 

Condition. — Family  numbers  six:  parents,  and  four  chil- 
dren from  two  to  sixteen  years  of  age ;  the  two  elder  go  to 
school.  Have  a  tenement  of  six  rooms  situated  in  a  pleasant 
neighborhood.     The  rooms  are  well  furnished  and  carpeted, 


236  LABOR. 

and  the  house  kept  clean  and  orderly.  Family  dresses  respect- 
ably and  well,  and  attends  church.  On  account  of  the  shoe- 
business  being  very  dull  for  the  past  two  years,  the  family  has 
had  a  hard  struggle  to  pay  bills  ;  and  during  the  last  year  has 
run  behind  some  seventy  dollars,  as  there  was  work  only  eight 
months  and  a  half.  Had  a  little  money  in  the  savings  bank, 
but  was  obliged  to  use  it.  The  oldest  child  will  begin  work  at 
the  close  of  the  present  school  term.  This  family  is  very  eco- 
nomical.    Had  no  sickness ;  bought  a  few  clothes. 

Food. — Breakfast:  bread,  butter,  hash  or  potatoes  warmed 
from  the  day  before,  doughnuts  or  cake,  coffee.  Dinner:  meat, 
potatoes,  pie  or  pudding,  and  tea.  Supper:  bread,  butter, 
sauce  or  cheese,  cake,  and  tea.  Buckwheat  or  griddle  cakes 
occasionally  for  breakfast.  Baked  beans  on  Saturd&y  night 
and  Sunday  morning. 

Cost  of  living 8622  00 

Milk 18  00 

Boots  and  shoes  .  .  16  00 
Clothing  and  dry  goods  .  28  50 
Sundries,  taxes,  &c.         .      11  00 

Here  is  a  debt ;  and  how  shall  it  be  paid  ?  The 
expense  for  food  is,  as  usual,  about  half  the  cost  of 
living. 

No.  86.  SHOEMAKER.  Amsbican. 

Earnings  of  father $546  00 

son,  aged  fourteen 102  00 

^  8738  00 

Condition.  —  The  family  mi mbors  four:  parents,  and  two 
children  from  ten  to  fourteen  years  of  age ;  one  goes  to  school. 
Live  in  a  tenement  of  five  rooms,  in  a  good  locality,  with 
pkTasant  surroundings.  The  apartments  are  well  furnished, 
carpeted,  and  kept  very  clean.  Family  dresses  well.  With 
the  assistance  of  the  son,  can  make  enough  to  suj^port  the  fam- 
ily. Work  about  nine  montlis  in  the  year.  Impossible  to  save 
money. 


Rent 8200  00 

Fuel 36  50 

Groceries   .       .        .        .    260  00 
Meat 62  00 


NATURAL  AND   STARVATION  WAGES. 


237 


Food.  —  Brealcfast :  bread,  butter,  meat  or  eggs,  cake, 
coffee.  Dinner:  bread,  butter,  meat,  potatoes,  vegetables,  pie, 
and  tea.    Supper :  bread,  butter,  sauce  or  fruit,  cheese,  cake,  tea. 


Cost  of  living    . 

. 

.  $738  00 

Rent    . 

.  §120  00 

Boots  and  shoes 

.       12  00 

Fuel    . 

.      49  50 

Clothing     . 

.      91  00 

Groceries    . 

.    21G  33 

Dry  goods  . 

.      27  50 

Meat   . 

.      99  02 

Books  and  papers     . 

.      12  00 

Fish    . 

.      10  40 

Societies 

8  00 

Milk   . 

.      17  60 

Sundries     . 

.      74  05 

Mr.  Senior  (^Political  Economy^  pp.  36,  37)  says 
that  "  when  a  Scotchman  rises  from  the  lowest  to  the 
middling  classes  of  society,  shoes  become  to  him 
necessaries.  He  wears  them  to  preserve,  not  his  feet, 
but  his  station  in  life."  All  Americans  wear  shoes 
to  preserve  not  their  feet,  but  their  social  position. 


No.  97. 
Earnings  of  father 


SHOEMAKER. 


French. 
.  $39G  00 


Condition.  —  Family  numbers  six :  parents,  and  four  chil- 
dren from  one  to  nine  years  of  age ;  two  go  to  school.  Live  in 
a  crowded  tenement,  of  three  rooms,  situated  in  a  very  un- 
healthy locality,  in  the  midst  of  filth  and  pollution.  On  out- 
side of  building  is  a  sink-conductor,  badly  out  of  repair ;  and 
the  sink-water,  almost  black,  runs  down  the  clapboards,  causing 
an  offensive  stench,  which  can  be  smelled  at  a  great  distance. 
The  inside  of  house  is  on  a  par  with  the  surroundings ;  it  is 
poorly  furnished,  and  seems  the  abode  of  poverty.  Children 
pale-looking,  sickly,  and  wretchedly  kept.  Father  earns  from 
twelve  to  fifteen  dollars  per  week  when  he  has  work ;  but  on 
account  of  sickness,  and  dulness  of  trade,  finds  it  impossible  to 
keep  out  of  debt,  and  live ;  sees  no  hope  of  betterment  of  con- 
dition until  children  are  old  enough  to  work.  Family  dresses 
miserably. 

Food. — Breakfast:    bread,  butter,  sometimes  salt  fisher 


238  LABOR. 

pork,  coffee.  Dinner:  bread,  meat  three  days  per  week,  salt 
fish  or  pork  the  remainder,  potatoes,  sometimes  pie,  water. 
Supper:  bread,  sometimes  brown  bread  or  oatmeal  bread,  but- 
ter, tea,  occasionally  gingerbread.     Cannot  afford  luxuries. 

Coat  of  living S483  40 


Rent $96  00 

Fuel 30  50 

Groceries   .        .        .        .  244  90 

Meat 23  00 

Fish 18  00 


Milk 12  00 

Clothing,  shoes,  and  dry 

goods     .        .        .        .  28  50 

Sickness     .        .        .        .  19  00 

Sundries     .        .        .        .  11  50 


It  is  not  always  safe  to  visit  the  fever-dens  and 
death-traps  in  this  little  city  of  Boston  in  the  sum- 
mer. You  •  had  better  go  when  the  snow  is  on  the 
ground.  I  had  occasion  to  advise  a  most  delicate 
lady  the  other  day  in  respect  to  her  visits  among  the 
degraded,  and  told  her  that  ministers  usually  take 
a  hearty  meal  before  they  go  into  desolate  quarters. 
A  Boston  preacher  informed  me  that  at  funerals  in 
the  slums  he  always  took  the  precaution  to  stand 
between  the  door,  and  the  bed  on  which  the  corpse 
lay.  Circumstances  of  this  kind  are  of  course  out  of 
sight  of  the  Board  of  Health. 

No.  215.  LABORER  IN  MILL.  English. 

Earnings  of  father $370  00 

daughter,  aged  fifteen 249  00 

$019  00 

Condition.  —  Family  numbers  five  :  parents,  and  three 
children  from  eight  to  fifteen  years  of  age ;  two  go  to  school. 
Occupy  a  tenement  of  four  rooms,  with  good  and  pleasant  sur- 
roundings. House  is  moderately  well  furnished.  Family 
dresses  well. 

Food.  —  Breakfast:  bread,  butter,  sometimes  eggs,  or  what 
was  left  from  dinner,  coffee.    Dinner:  meat,  potatoes,  vegeta- 


NATURAL   AND   STARVATION  WAGES. 


239 


bles  in  season,  bread,  pie. 
cheese,  cake,  tea. 


Supper:  bread,  butter,  sometimes 


Cost  of  living    . 

.        .       . 

.$619  00 

Rent    . 

.    $66  00 

Boots  and  shoes 

.      14  00 

Fuel    . 

.      39  50 

Clothing     . 

.      37  50 

Groceries   . 

.    308  50 

Dry  goods  . 

.      17  00 

Meat  . 

.      86  90 

Papers 

8  00 

Milk    . 

.      11  26 

Sundries    . 

.      30  34 

Even  with  the  help  of  the  daughter,  nothing  can 
be  laid  up  here  for  sickness  or  age. 


No.  346. 
Earnings  of  father 


LABORER  ON  STREETS. 


Ibish. 
.  $436  00 
wife 200  00 


$636  00 

Condition.  —  Family  numbers  six :  parents,  and  four  chil- 
dren from  two  to  thirteen  years  of  age ;  two  go  to  school. 
Have  a  tenement  of  three  rooms  in  a  poor  locality.  The  house 
is  meanly  furnished,  and  dirty.  The  mother  goes  out  cleaning 
and  washing,  and  therefore  has  no  time  to  keep  her  own  house 
clean.     Family  dresses  poorly. 

Food. — Breakfast:  bread,  butter,  and  coffee.  Dinner: 
meat  or  fish,  potatoes,  and  bread.  Supper:  bread,  butter,  and 
tea. 


Cost  of  living 
Rent   . 
Fuel    . 
Groceries 
Meat   . 
Fish    . 


$126  00 

30  25 

376  25 

50  40 

4  29 


Milk    .        .        . 
Boots  and  shoes 
Clothing     . 
Dry  goods  . 
Sundries     . 


$661  49 
17  20 
12  00 
21  80 
14  00 
9  30 


LABORER,  OUT-DOOR. 


Irish. 
.$351  00 


No.  306. 
Earnings  of  father 

CoNDiTiox.  —  Family  numbers  five  :  parents,  and  three  chil- 
dren from  two  to  seven  years  of  age.  Have  a  tenement  of 
three  rooms  in  a  large  tenement-block,  in  which  is  an  average 


240  LABOR. 

of  two  and  a  half  persons  to  each  room:  it  is  situated  in  a 
very  unhealthy  neighborhood.  The  father  works  only  about 
nine  months  in  the  year,  and  the  mother  goes  out  washing.  A 
part  of  the  fuel  is  picked  from  the  streets  by  the  children,  who 
do  not  attend  school.  This  family  is  a  little  over  fifty  dollars 
in  debt.  It  took  more  than  the  mother  could  earn  to  buy  the 
clothes ;  and,  as  there  was  some  sickness,  it  ran  them  in  debt  a 
little  for  physician  and  medicine.     Family  dresses  poorly. 

Food. — As  to  how  they  live,  they  could  not  tell,  as  it 
varied  according  to  their  means.  They  have  meat  only  two 
days  per  week. 

Cost  of  living $362  00 


Rent $66  00 

Fuel 23  00 

Groceries   .       .       .        .  201  80 

Meat 24  25 


Milk 13  60 

Fish 18  00 

Boots  and  shoes        .        .  14  25 

PoU-tax      .        .       .        .  2  00 


This- case  is  too  sad  for  comment;  but  it  is  a  most 
just  type  of  low-paid  labor. 

1.  When  wages  go  below  a  certain  point,  the  in- 
crease of  population  is  so  diminished  in  many  cases 
that  you  cannot  fill  up  the  gaps  caused  by  death  and 
disability ;  that  is,  you  cannot  reproduce  the  labor. 

2.  Natural  wages  are  such  as  will  reproduce  labor. 

3.  The  true  definition  of  value  is  not  the  cost  of 
production,  but  the  cost  of  reproduction. 

4.  As  in  regard  to  any  other  piece  of  property,  so 
with  regard  to  that  piece  of  property  wliich  we  call 
labor,  there  must  be  enough  paid  for  it  to  cover  the 
cost  not  only  of  producing  it,  but  of  reproducing  it. 

What  is  Tremont  Temple  worth  to-day?  Any 
good  salesman  will  tell  you  that  its  value  is  not 
measured  by  what  it  cost,  but  by  what  it  would  cost 
to  reproduce  it.     Timber  and  other  building-material 


NATURAL  AND   STAKVATION   WAGES.  241 

may  have  been  cheaper  when  this  temple  was  erected 
than  they  are  now.  Its  value  is  the  cost  of  its  repro- 
duction. Labor  is  property,  and  its  value  is  to  be 
determined  by  the  same  rule.  This  is  a  natural  law 
not  likely  to  be  soon  reversed. 

Only  the  Golden  Rule  can  bring  the  golden  age. 
As  long  as  an  explosive  class  is  in  process  of  growth 
at  the  bottom  of  society,  we  shall  have  demagogues 
who  will  abuse  universal  suffrage.  My  conviction 
is,  that  American  institutions  cannot  safely  permit 
the  formation  of  an  hereditary  poor  class.  Crip- 
ples and  drones  may  sink  into  pinched  places  in  the 
industrial  world,  and  be  kept  in  order  there  under 
free  institutions ;  but  if  men  who  are  economical  and 
industrious,  and  not  intemperate,  nor  of  poor  physical 
capabilities,  find  that  a  little  sickness  throws  them 
into  debt,  and  that  they  cannot  lay  up  any  thing  for 
advanced  years,  we  shall  have  a  sour  mass  of  work- 
ing-men whom  demagogues  will  make  dangerous. 
There  will  be  an  unemployed  and  a  discontented 
class ;  and  politicians  of  the  fifth  rank  will  ride  on 
the  just  exasperations  of  that  portion  of  society,  into 
power.  If  we  had  the  rule  adopted,  not  by  legisla- 
tion, but  by  general  custom,  that,  when  a  man  is 
willing  to  work,  he  shall  be  paid  enough  to  make  the 
purchasing  power  of  a  day's  labor  equal  to  twice  the 
cost  of  his  unprepared  food,,  or  to  twice  the  cost  of 
the  unprepared  food  for  a  family  which  cannot  labor 
remuneratively,  how  could  this  powder  explode? 
How  could  the  powder  itself  ever  be  produced  ?  I 
hold  that  natural  wages  would  increase  the  gains  of 


242  LABOB. 

capitalists  by  increasing  the  expenditures  of  the 
laboring  class.  I  have  in  mind  a  time  when  America, 
by  justice  to  labor,  will  give  renewed  strength  to 
capital,  and  make  the  industrial  arrangements  of  the 
United  States  a  model  for  the  other  free,  experiment- 
ing populations  of  the  world. 

"  Methinks  I  see  in  my  mind  a  noble  and  puissant 
nation  rousing  herself  like  a  strong  man  after  sleep, 
and  shaking  her  invincible*  locks ;  methinks  I  see  her 
as  an  eagle  mewing  her  mighty  youth,  and  kindling 
her  undazzled  eyes  at  the  full  midday  beam;  pur- 
ging and  unsealing  her  long-abused  sight  at  the 
fountain  itself  of  heavenly  radiance,  while  the  whole 
noise  of  timorous  and  flocking  birds,  with  those  also 
that  love  the  twilight,  flutter  about,  amazed  at  what 
she  means."     (Milton,  Areopagitiea.')     [Applause.] 


IX. 

IS  JUSTICE  A  PERIL  TO  CAPITALISTS  ? 

THE   ONE   HUNDRED   AND  NINETEENTH   LECTURE   IN   THE 
BOSTON   MONDAY  LECTURESHIP,   DELIVERED  IN 

TREMONT   TEMPLE,   DEC.   30.  < 


"  A  fair  day's-wages  for  a  fair  day's-work : "  it  is  as  just  a 
demand  as  governed  men  ever  made  of  Governing.  It  is  the 
everlasting  right  of  man.  Indisputable  as  Gaspels,  as  arithmetical 
multiplication-tables:  it  must  and  will  have  itself  fulfilled;  —  and 
yet,  in  these  times  of  ours,  with  what  enormous  difficulty,  next- 
door  to  impossibility!  —  Cablvle. 

Sooner  or  later  I  too  may  passively  take  the  print 
Of  the  golden  age  —  why  not  ?    I  have  neither  hope  nor  trust; 
May  make  my  heart  as  a  millstone,  set  my  face  as  a  flint, 
Cheat  and  be  cheated  and  die:  who  knows?    We  are  ashes  and  dust. 

Tbmnyson:  Maud. 


IX. 

IS  JUSTICE  A  PERIL  TO   CAPITALISTS? 

PRELUDE   ON   CURRENT   EVENTS. 

The  American  Union  has  reduced  its  national 
debt  eightfold  more  rapidly  than  Great  Britain  did 
hers.  Resumption  of  specie  payments  by  the  United 
States  begins  with  the  new  year  [applause]  ;  and 
what,  according  to  many  popular  prophets,  ought  not 
to  be,  and  could  not  be,  already  is.  You  take  up 
your  newspaper,  and  read  that  gold  stands  steady  at 
par.  That  is  news  you  have  not  seen  for  seventeen 
years.  It  is  great  news.  [Applause.]  America 
kneels  on  the  frosty  sods  above  the  tombs  of  the 
martyrs  in  the  civil  war;  and,  only  thirteen  years 
after  the  close  of  a  conflict  five  years  in  duration, 
she  lifts  up  her  hands  to  heaven,  and  receives  as  a 
New  Year's  present  a  clean  financial  record.  This 
gift  comes  from  God,  and  not  from  seventh-rate  poli- 
ticians.    [Applause.] 

Surely  a  republic  in  which  universal  suffrage  is 
sometimes  said  to  be  a  failure  has  a  right  to  point 
with  abundant  gratitude   to  Providence,  and  some 

245 


246  LABOR. 

honest  pride,  to  a  financial  record  unexampled  in 
ancient  or  modern  times.  In  1860  the  public  debt 
of  the  United  States  was  $64,000,000.  In  1866  it 
was  82,773,000,000.  In  1877  it  was  $2,060,000,000. 
The  public  debt  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland  is 
$3,625,000,000.  Before  our  civil  war  we  knew  little 
or  nothing  of  internal  taxation  for  federal  purposes. 
During  that  conflict,  such  taxation  was  raised  above 
every  present  and  every  past  example.  The  interest 
on  our  debt  was  the  highest  in  the  world.  After  the 
close  of  the  Napoleonic  wars,  the  propertied  classes 
in  Great  Britain  refused  to  bear  an  income-tax  for  a 
single  year.  Americans  have  long  borne  voluntarily, 
under  universal  suffrage,  the  burdens  of  war  taxation. 
In  1877  we  exported  so  much  more  merchandise  than 
we  imported,  that  the  balance  of  trade  in  our  fav^r 
was  $152,000,000. 

"In  each  twelve  months,"  says  Mr.  Gladstone, 
"  America  has  done  what  we  did  in  eight  years ;  her 
self-command,  self-denial,  and  wise  forethought  for 
the  future,  have  been,  to  say  the  least,  eightfold  ours. 
An  enfranchised  nation  tolerated  burdens  wliich  in 
Great  Britain  a  selected  class,  possessed  of  the  repre- 
sentation, did  not  dare  to  face.  The  most  unmiti- 
gated democracy  known  to  the  annals  of  the  world 
resolutely  reduced  at  its  own  cost  prospective  liabili- 
ties of  the  State,  which  the  aristocratic  and  pluto- 
cratic and  monarcliical  government  of  the  United 
Kingdom  has  been  contented  ignobly  to  hand  over  to 
posterity."  ("  Kin  beyond  Sea,"  North  American 
Review^  September,  1878,  pp.  188,  189.) 


IS   JUSTICE  A  PERIL  TO  CAPITALISTS  ?        247 

Most  instructive  have  been  the  popular  movements 
by  which  this  resplendent  financial  result  has  been 
achieved,  and  almost  equally  instructive  are  those  by 
which  it  has  beien  opposed.  How  has  financial  wick- 
edness in  politics  been  prevented?  How  was  good 
financial  sense  under  universal  suffrage  secured  ? 
The  whole  world  has  an  interest  in  the  answer  to 
these  questions. 

Eye-witnesses  of  our  history  for  the  last  five  years 
are  frequently  whispering  that  the  newspapers  and 
ministers,  and  not  politicians  and  financiers,  saved  the 
nation  from  repudiation.  This  contemporary  opin- 
ion will  be  of  interest  to  the  future  historian.  "  The 
New  York  Nation,"  which  has  a  peculiar  fondness  for 
the  ministry,  affirms  that  the  ministers  and  the  news- 
papers together  have  saved  the  nation  from  repudiat- 
ing its  debts  and  swindling  its  creditors.  It  asserts 
roundly  that  if  the  ministers  had  not  attacked  the 
financial  heresies  of  the  last  two  years  as  sin,  or  a 
disguised  attempt  to  cheat,  and  if  the  leading  news- 
papers had  not  taught  honesty  unflinchingly,  politi- 
cians would  have  been  unable  to  resist  the  current  of 
popular  error  on  great  questions  of  finance.  With- 
out the  combined  influence  of  the  pulpit  and  press 
on  public  opinion,  probably  some  politicians  would 
have  led  off  in  a  great  financial  experiment  that 
would  have  ended  in  wreck  and  repudiation. 

The  act  providing  for  the  resumption  of  specie 
payments  became  a  law  Jan.  14,  1875. 

What  winds  burst  forth  out  of  Ohio  and  Indiana, 
and  the  Mississippi  Valley  generally,  the  moment  it 


248  LABOR. 

was  determined  to  resume  specie  payments  on  the 
fii*st  day  of  1879 !  Strange  storms,  never  known  be- 
fore in  American  politics,  were  let  loose.  It  ought 
not  to  be,  and  yet  it  will  be,  soon  forgotten,  how  Con- 
gress was  importuned  to  repeal  the  resumption  act, 
and  how  the  House  of  Representatives  was  widely 
supposed  to  have  power  to  make  ninety  cents  equal 
to  an  hundred. 

If  a  newly  organized  national  party  had  achieved 
success,  there  would  have  been  fastened  upon  us  the 
searching  curse  of  fiat  money  and  a  political  cur- 
rency. 

A  silver  bill,  which  the  President  vetoed  as  incon- 
sistent with  the  national  promise  to  pay  its  debts  in 
coin,  passed  the  House  Nov.  5,  1877,  by  a  vote  of 
one  hundred  and  sixty -four  to  thirty-four. 

A  bill  to  repeal  the  resumption  act,  or  so  much  of 
it  as  provided  for  the  redemption  in  coin  of  the 
United  States  legal-tender  notes,  passed  the  House 
Nov.  23,  1877,  by  a  vote  of  one  hundred  and  thirty- 
three  to  one  hundred  and  twenty. 

Mr.  Gladstone  says  the  facts  to  Our  credit  should 
be  told  out ;  and  so  should  these  other  facts  to  our 
shame. 

The  Senate,  however,  operated  as  the  saucer  does 
upon  the  teacup.  You  remember  that  Washington 
saitl  to  Lafayette  once  at  a  dinner-table :  "  We  need 
two  bodies  in  our  legislative  branch.  We  want  this 
hot  teacup  to  represent  the  popular  feeling.  The 
House  of  Representatives  should  be  close  to  the 
people's  firesides.     But  we  need  the  Senate  as  the 


IS  JTJSTICE   A  PEKIL  TO   CAPITALISTS  ?        249 

saucer  to  cool  the  teacup  somewhat."  Neither  the 
saucer  nor  the  teacup  would  do  well  alone.  We  need 
the  hotness,  and  we  need  the  assuaged  hotness  also, 
and  so  must  have  both  parts  of  this  furniture  of  the 
table.  This  wisdom  of  Washington  has  again  and 
again  been  justified  by  the  discussions  of  the  last  two 
years.  The  Senate,  at  least  twice,  has  crushed 
repudiation  schemes  of  the  lower  House. 

Without  indorsing  the  assertion  that  the  news- 
papers and  ministers  together  have  saved  us,  I  may 
be  allowed  to  affirm  that  it  appears  to  me  capable  of 
superabundant  proof  that  the  ministers  and  the  news- 
papers, and  the  Senate  and  an  honest  Executive,  have 
saved  us. 

I  am  not  discussing  this  matter  from  a  point  of 
view  of  partisan  politics,  but  from  that  of  American 
institutions,  out  of  wliich  we  do  see  that  good  sense 
has  some  chance  to  come,  even  under  universal  suf- 
frage. We  were  told  lately  by  a  Southern  senator 
that  the  time  may  not  be  far  distant  when  the  large 
representation  of  New  England  in  the  Senate  will  be 
attacked,  on  the  ground  of  its  injustice  to  other  por- 
tions of  the  Union.  Texas,  which  is  larger  than 
France,  has  two  senators  only.  California,  although 
larger  than  Italy,  has  only  two.  But  Rhode  Island, 
hardly  large  enough  for  a  county,  has  as  much 
power  in  the  Senate  as  Texas  or  California.  The 
group  of  six  small  New  England  States  weighs  as 
much  in  the  Senate  as  the  vast  Commonwealths  of 
New  York',  Pennsylvania,  Ohio,  Indiana,  Illinois, 
and  Iowa  put  together.     Our  government  is  one  of 


250  LABOE. 

checks  and  balances.  It  is  not  a  pure  democracy. 
New  England  has  always  defended  the  checks  and 
balances ;  and,  in  the  last  two  years,  Providence  has 
emphasized  them,  and  justified  their  existence  and 
activity !  [Applause.]  If  we  had  not  had  the  two 
Houses,  or  if  the  basis  of  representation  in  the  up- 
per House  had  been  what  it  is  in  the  lower,  who 
knows  but  that  financial  heresy  would  have  swept 
the  good  sense  of  the  nation  from  its  moorings  ? 

The  colleges  in  the  Mississippi  Valley  were  against 
the  silver  bill.  In  the  centre  of  Iowa,  I  was  told  by 
President  Magoun,  one  of  the  superb  leaders  of 
sound  policies  in  the  West,  that,  when  the  Bland 
silver  bill  was  before  the  House,  twelve  or  fifteen 
Western  colleges  sent  a  petition  to  Washington 
against  it,  and  that  the  paper  was  signed  by  nearly 
every  professor  in  those  institutions.  We  know 
what  excellent  work  the  hard-money  league  of 
Chicago  has  been  doing.  I  am  not  assailing  the 
West  for  her  position  as  to  the  silver  bill.  There 
were  two  parties  in  the  Mississippi  Valley ;  and,  if 
the  schools  and  ministers  there  were  sometimes 
misled,  the  best  of  them  were  not.  The  best  parts  of 
the  newspaper  press  in  the  West  were  not  misled, 
although  the  best  in  newspapers  is  a  small  percent- 
age there  and  here.  The  West  reads  Western  daily 
newspapers,  and  not  Eastern.  It  is  easy  to  over- 
estimate the  extent  of  the  influence  of  our  seaboard 
daily  newspapers.  Your  daily  is  not  a  daily  three 
hundred  miles  from  the  place  where  it  is  published, 
but  a  paper  of  the  second  day.    We  are  not  to  at- 


IS  JUSTICE  A  PERIL  TO   CAPITALISTS  ?        251 

tribute  all  the  turns  of  political  sentiment  in  the 
United  States  to  the  peculiar  inclinations  the  pens 
of  the  New  York  editors  may  have.  A  few  New 
York  monthlies,  and  one  or  two  weeklies,  reach  the 
whole  nation;  but  the  average  citizen  of  Chicago 
rarely  sees  the  New  York  dailies.  Our  nation  is  not 
like  England,  where  one  newspaper  can  easily  reach 
every  coast  of  an  island  so  small  that  when  an  Ameri- 
can walks  in  his  sleep  there  he  is  in  danger  of  step- 
ping off  the  land.  Englishmen  are  proud  of  the  fact 
that  the  very  best  discussions  of  the  London  dailies 
go  to  the  remotest  quarters  of  England  and  Scotland, 
and.  they  well  may  value  this  one  excellent  effect 
of  the  smallness  of  the  British  Islands.  It  is  not  the 
fact  that  the  best  American  daily  newspapers  go  to 
all  quarters  of  our  immense  territory.  Therefore  we 
must  give  praise  to  several  vigorous  newspapers 
which  in  the  West  stood  right  on  the  financial  ques- 
tion ;  and  to  the  newspapers  in  the  South,  and  the 
half-dozen  or  dozen  statesmen  there,  who  stood  right 
on  that  subject.  It  is  not  true  that  the  seaboard  led 
the  whole  nation. 

The  West  is  very  haughty  on  financial  topics,  if 
asked  to  accept  without  change  the  position  of  the 
seaboard  from  which  she  has  borrowed  so  much. 
There  is  nothing  subtler,  I  suppose,  in  the  reasons 
which  induced  a  part  of  the  West  to  oppose  a  financial 
policy  almost  unanimously  favored  by  the  seaboard, 
than  the  fact  that  so  much  has  been  borrowed  by  the 
West  from  the  East  that  it  is  often  supposed  capi- 
talists here  have  interested  motives  in  all  discussions 


252  LABOR. 

of  financial  questions.  Therefore  let  us  give  the 
more  praise  to  the  Western  press,  so  far  as  it  was 
right,  and  to  the  Western  pulpit,  and  to  any  West- 
ern statesmen  who  were  not  misled  by  the  popular 
clamor. 

There  has  been  more  than  one  occasion  in  the 
history  of  the  United  States  when  the  ministry  has 
given  hope  to  the  national  executive.  Commissioner 
Eaton  told  me  in  the  educational  bureau  at  Washing- 
ton, that  one  of  the  most  impressive  things  Presi- 
dent Lincoln  ever  said  to  him  was,  that  the  sheet- 
anchor  of  the  cause  of  the  Union  in  the  darkest  days 
of  the  war  clung  to  the  pulpits  of  the  Northern  a.ud 
Western  States.  [Applause.]  If  the  ministry  had 
not  taken  a  right  position  on  financial  issues  in  the 
last  two  years,  we  should  have  had  trouble  in  the 
next  Presidential  campaign  with  these  same  issues. 
If  the  recent  discussion  has  not  saved  the  nation 
from  the  ultimate  recurrence  of  such  heresies  in 
our  politics,  it  has  saved  the  next  Presidential  cam- 
paign from  being  carried  by  any  apologist  for  social- 
istic opinions  in  finance.     [Applause.] 

While,  therefore,  we  take  some  credit  to  ourselves 
for  diminishing  rapidly  our  national  debt,  and  exe- 
cuting a  buffeted  resumption  act ;  while  we  accept, 
with  proper  humility,  the  praise  Mr.  Gladstone  has 
given  us  in  his  contrast  of  the  American  democracy 
with  the  British  aristocracy ;  while  we  look  on  the 
unexampled  financial  vigor  of  our  nation  at  a  date 
so  near  the  time  when  some  of  us  desj)aired  of  her 
life;  wliilo  we  anticipate  the  not-distant  day  when 


IS   JUSTICE  A  PEEIL  TO   CAPITALISTS  ?        253 

she  will  be  the  wealthiest  of  nations;  while  we 
remember  how  France  has  paid  her  crushing  in- 
debtedness swiftly,  and  is  a  republic,  let  us  not  en- 
tirely give  up  hope  as  to  popular  suffrage ;  and  even 
here  in  Boston,  where,  as  Mr.  Phillips  says,  we  do 
not  believe  in  republican  institutions,  let  us  not  quite 
despair,  when  a  republic,  with  all  its  faults,  honestly 
pays  its  debts,  here  and  in  Paris.     [Applause.] 

THE  LECTTJEE. 

It  is  a  suggestive  circumstance,  that  the  first  dis- 
course ever  uttered  in  the  world  had  a  lie  for  its  text, 
and  converted  half  its  hearers.     The  dismal  science 
of  political  economy,  when  it  discusses  the  question 
whether  justice  is  a  peril  to  capitalists,  often  takes  \ 
for  its  text  the  lie  that  the  relations  between  capi-  ! 
tal  and  labor  are  a  see-saw ;   or  that,  as  the  laborer 
goes  up,  the  capitalist  will  go  down,  and  that,  as  the 
laborer  goes  down,  the  capitalist  must  go  up.     This 
is  Ricardo's  doctrine.     This  is  to-day  the  theory  of 
several  universities,  but  not  of  the  best  ones ;   and, 
thank  God,  it  is  a  doctrine  oftener  and  oftener  as- 
sailed of  late  in  the  name  of  political  economy  itself,  > 
as  represented  by  Professors  Cairnes  and  Jevons  and 
Bonamy  Price,  and  our  own  Professors  Bowen  and  i 
Walker.      Gov.   Winthrop  of  Massachusetts  tells   a  ' 
story  which   illustrates  the  average   opinion  of  the 
political  economists  of  the  older  school   concerning 
the  relations  of.  labor  to  capital.     "  I  may,  upon  this 
occasion,"  he  writes,  "repeat  a  passage  between  one 
of  Rowley,  and  his  servant.    The  master,  being  forced 


254  LABOB. 

to  sell  a  pair  of  oxen  to  pay  his  servant  his  wages, 
told  the  servant  he  could  keep  him  no  longer;  not 
knowing  how  to  pay  him  the  next  year.  The  servant 
answered  him  that  he  would  serve  him  for  more  of 
his  cattle.  '  But  how  shall  I  do,'  saith  the  master, 
'when  all  my  cattle  are  gone?'  The  servant  re- 
plied, 'You  shall  then  serve  me,  and  so  you  may 
have  your  cattle  again.'  "  (^History  of  New  Eng- 
land, p.  219.) 

This  is  the  see-saw  theory  of  wages  and  profits :  — 

1.  The  amount  of  capital  which  in  any  country 
can  be  devoted  at  a  given  time  to  the  payment  of 
wages  is  a  dividend. 

2.  The  number  of  laborers  who  in  that  country, 
at  the  given  time,  ask  for  wages,  is  a  divisor. 

3.  The  rate  of  wages  which  can  be  paid  in  that 
country,  at  the  given  time,  is  the  quotient  obtained 
by  dividing  the  amount  of  capital  by  the  number  of 
laborers. 

4.  There  is  no  fighting  against  the  rules  of  arith- 
metic ;  and  therefore  there  is  no  way  to  increase  this 
quotient  without  enlarging  the  dividend,  or  diminish- 
ing the  divisor. 

5.  The  foregoing  dividend,  which  is  called  the 
wages-fund,  is  a  part  of  the  aggregate  capital  of  a 
country ;  and  tlie  ratio  between  that  capital  and  the 
amount  devoted  to  the  payment  of  wages  may  vary 
with  the  conditions  of  industry  and  the  habits  of  the 
people ;  but  at  any  given  time  the  dividend  is  a  defi- 
nite part  of  the  aggregate  capital,  and  cannot  be  in- 
creased by  law,  or  public  opinion,  or  compassion  on 


IS  JUSTICE  A  PERIL  TO   CAPITALISTS  ?        255 

the  part  of  employers,  or  the  efforts  of  the  working 
classes. 

6.  The  wages-fund  is  distributed  by  competition. 

7.  More  than  the  amount  of  the  wages-fund,  the 
wages-receiving  class  cannot  possibly  divide  among 
them. 

8.  That  amount,  and  no  less,  they  cannot  but  ob- 
tain. 

9.  The  working-man  who  wants  higher  wages  is  to 
be  told,  that,  as  the  wages-fund  is  fixed  in  amount,  if 
he  receives  more,  some  other  laborer  must  for  that 
reason  receive  less,  or  be  kept  out  of  employment 
altogether. 

10.  Competition  is  so  perfect  that  the  laborer 
always  realizes  the  highest  wages  the  employer  can 
afford  to  pay,  or  else,  as  consumer,  is  rewarded  by 
the  lower  price  of  commodities. 

11.  Wages  and  profits  are  drawn  from  the  same 
fund. 

12.  Profits  depend  on  wages. 

13.  Profits  and  wages  increase  and  diminish,  there- 
fore, at  each  other's  expense,  and  what  is  gained  on 
the  one  side  is  lost  on  the  other. 

14.  The  industrial  world  is,  therefore,  a  ghastly 
battle-field,  on  which  capital  and  labor  are  of  neces- 
sity ever  at  war,  and  where  victory  and  its  spoils 
must  go  to  the  stronger. 

Statements  of  the  theory  here  summarized  may 
be  found  scattered  in  detached  form  through  many 
treatises  of  the  older  school  in  political  economy. 
(See  the  doctrine  of  the  wage-fund  defended  by  Pro- 


256  LABOR. 

fessor  Fawcett,  Economic  Position  of  the  British 
Laborer,  p.  120;  by  John  Stuart  Mill,  Fort- 
nightly Review,  May,  1869 ;  and  Professor  Perry  of 
Williams  College,  Political  Economy,  pp.  122,  123.) 

In  these  accursed  principles  you  have  the  veins 
and  arteries  through  which  circulates  most  of  the 
black  blood  of  the  feud  between  capital  and  labor, 
and  of  socialistic  and  communistic  discontent  in 
modern  times.  Carlyle  calls  political  economy  the 
dismal  science,  because,  up  to  a  late  date,  it  has  taught 
propositions  such  as  these.  But  it  is  the  glory  of  the 
best  recent  discussions  in  political  economy,  to  have 
ripped  open  these  poisoned  veins,  and  to  have  let  out 
much  of  this  black  blood.  It  may  be  that  on  this 
theme  I  shall  have  great  difficulty  in  obtaining  a  hear- 
ing with  older  men  who  have  been  taught  in  a  school 
of  political  economy  now  obsolete  or  obsolescent, 
while  we  younger  men  have  been  brought  up  in  a  new 
school.  If  I  seem  to  speak  disrespectfully  of  Ricardo 
and  of  the  theory  of  the  wages-fund,  remember  that 
Bonamy  Price  and  Cairnes  and  Walker  do  the  same. 
Professor  Bowcn,  representing  Harvard  *  University, 
explicitly  rejects  that  theory.  (See  North  American 
Review,  cxx.,  pp.  93,  94,  note.)  I  take  up  here  Pro- 
fessor Walker's  work  on  wages,  as  perhaps  the  best 
treatise  America  has  given  us  on  the  subject,  and 
certainly  a  book  representing  Yale  College ;  and  you 
will  find  the  whole  volume  employed  in  combating 
those  very  assumptions  which  may  prejudice  many 
here  against  my  proposition  that  the  see-saw  theory 
as  to  wages  and  profits  is  as  unsound  in  social  science 


IS   JUSTICE  A  PERIL  TO   CAPITALISTS  ?        257 

as  it  is  cruel  in  social  practice.  For  instance,  Pro- 
fessor Walker  says :  — 

"  I  regret  that  this  treatise  should  be  so  strongly- 
controversial  in  form;  but  the  fact  is,  certain  doc- 
trines which  I  deem  to  be  wholly  unfounded  have 
become  so  widely  spread,  that  one  can  make  no  prog- 
ress, by  so  much  as  a  step,  towards  a  philosophy  of 
wages,  without  encountering  them.  These  doctrines 
are,  — 

"  That  tliere  is  a  wage-fund  irrespective  of  the 
numbers  and  industrial  quality  of  the  laboring  popu- 
lation, constituting  the  sole  source  from  which  wages 
can  at  any  time  be  drawn. 

"  That  competition  is  so  far  perfect  that  the  labor- 
er, as  a  producer,  always  realizes  the  highest  wages 
which  the  employer  can  afford  to  pay,  or  else,  as  con- 
sumer, is  recompensed  in  the  lower  price  of  commodi- 
ties for  any  injury  he  may  chance  to  suffer  as  pro- 
ducer. 

"  That,  in  the  organization  of  modern  industrial 
society,  the  laborer  and  the  capitalist  are  together 
sufficient  unto  production,  the  actual  employer  of 
labor  being  regarded  as  the  capitalist,  or  else  as  the 
mere  stipendiary  agent  and  creature  of  the  capitalist, 
receiving  a  remuneration  which  can  properly  be 
treated  like  the  wages  of  ordinary  labor. 

"  These  doctrines  I  have  found  it  necessary  to  con- 
trovert ;  and  in  so  doing  have  not  cared  to  mince 
matters  or  pick  phrases." 

These  are,  in  substance,  the  doctrines  of  Ricardo. 
They  were  very  nearly  the  doctrines  of  John  Stuart 


258  LABOR. 

Mill.  Bonamy  Price  accuses  Mill  himself  of  intro- 
ducing utter  confusion  into  the  topic  of  profits. 
(^Practical  Political  Economy^  London,  1878,  p.  135.) 
Mill,  however,  is  said  to  have  abandoned  the  see-saw 
theory  in  his  latest  and  yet  unpublished  essays. 

A  man  is  a  man,  even  if  his  father  was  rich.  I 
have  defended  the  interests  of  working-men;  and, 
if  now  I  defend  those  of  capitalists  and  manufac- 
turers, you  will  remember  that  many  of  the  latter 
were  working-men  once,  and  that  in  America  any 
man  with  the  proper  spirit  of  self-help  may  become 
a  capitalist. 

Do  fair  wages  drive  employers  into  bankruptcy? 
Is  justice  a  peril  to  capitalists  ?  Is  it  impossible  to 
pay  natural  wages,  and  make  reasonable  profits  ? 

A  startlingly  large  proportion  of  the  employing 
class  does  not  escape  financial  distress.  Here  is  a 
very  suggestive  pamphlet  on  "  Common-sense  Views 
in  Political  Economy,"  by  J.  H.  Walker,  Esq.,  of 
Worcester,  Mass.,  who  testified  at  their  request 
before  the  Hewitt  Congressional  Committee.  Mr. 
Walker  discusses  the  fate  of  business-men  (p.  10). 
He  tells  us  that  in  1840  there  were  four  firms  in 
Worcester  engaged  in  the  chief  industry  of  the 
State,  —  tlie  manufacture  of  boots  and  shoes.  They 
comprised  seven  individuals,  and  only  one  of  these 
manufacturers  died  in  comfortable  circumstances  in 
advanced  age.  Two  of  them  were  at  work  for  Mr. 
Walker  as  journeymen  when  prostrated  by  their 
final  sickness.  In  1850  there  were  twenty-one  firms 
manufacturing  boots  and  shoes  in  Worcester,  com- 


IS  JUSTICE  A  PEEIL  TO   CAPITALISTS?         259 

prising  twenty-four  members.  All  but  four  of  these 
failed  in  business,  and  only  two  have  retired  with 
any  capital.-  In  1860  there  were  twenty-three  firms 
engaged  in  the  same  business  in  Worcester,  com- 
prising thirty  individuals.  Of  these  twenty-three 
firms,  twelve  have  failed  ;  and,  of  the  individuals  who 
comprised  the  firms,  only  eight  are  now  manufac- 
turing, and  only  two  have  gone  out  of  the  business 
with  any  capital. 

When  I  stand  here,  and  assert  that  the  labor  of  an 
able-bodied  slave  is  computed  to  be  Avorth  twice  his 
maintenance,  and  that  the  service  of  the  meanest 
laborer  cannot  be  worth  less  than  that  of  an  able- 
bodied  slave,  you  remember  the  number  of  business 
failures,  and  the  frequent  financial  straits  of  employ- 
ers, and  you  think  I  am  teaching  heresy ;  that  I  am 
trenching  upon  the  great  rights  of  capital ;  and  that  I 
am  dropping  out  of  the  region  of  science  in  politi- 
cal economy.  But  these  propositions  were  those  of 
Adam  Smith  (see  Wealth  of  Nations^  Book  I.  chap, 
viii.)  ;  these  propositions  are  those  of  John  Stuart  Mill 
himself.  Why,  here  is  Mill,  cool  as  an  iceberg  on 
this  topic,  but  straightforward  as  a  sunbeam  :  "  Where 
the  wife  of  a  laboring-man  does  not  by  general  cus- 
tom contribute  to  his  earnings,  the  man's  wages  must 
be  at  least  sufficient  to  support  himself,  a  wife,  and 
a  number  of  children  adequate  to  keep  up  the  popu- 
lation, since^  if  it  were  less,  the  population  would  not  be 
kept  upT     (^Political  Economy,  Book  XI.  chap,  xiv.) 

If  this  be  indeed  a  natural  law,  who  knows  but 
these  business  failures  come  into  collision  with  nature 


260  LABOR. 

itself?  Who  knows  but  that  Ricardo,  after  all,  was 
right,  and  that  the  natural  relations  of  labor  to  capi- 
tal are  those  of  war?  Occasionally  manufacturers 
retain  their  operatives  in  employment  at  a  loss.  I 
know  there  are  princes  in  our  manufacturing  estab- 
lishments, who  sometimes  suffer  financially  in  order 
to  be  generous  to  their  operatives  in  hard  times. 
But  nobody  expects  these  exceptions  to  become  the 
general  rule.  I  am  speaking  not  of  the  princes,  but 
of  the  average  condition  of  trade  under  the  stern 
law  of  supply  and  demand ;  and  I  wish  to  ascertain, 
whether,  under  that  law,  it  is  indeed  true  that  the 
condition  of  capital  and  labor  must  be  that  of  war. 

In  England,  at  the  town  of  MerthjT,  a  great  min- 
ing-district, a  strike  occurred  in  which  a  desperate 
attempt  was  made  to  keep  wages  up  to  the  standard 
of  working-men.  The  laborers  refused  to  believe 
that  their  employers  could  not  pay  them  what  they 
demanded.  The  employers  said,  "  We  will  prove  to 
you  that  we  are  sincere.  We  will  put  out  our  fur- 
naces, and  inflict  on  ourselves  a  great  loss,  if  you 
continue  this  strike.  This  loss  will  be  less  than  that 
of  paying  the  wages  you  ask."  The  workmen  would 
not  be  convinced.  They  demanded  the  "  minimum 
wjige,"  as  it  was  called ;  did  not  obtain  opportunity 
to  look  into  the  books  of  their  employers ;  could  not 
credit  the  assertion  that  the  employers  were  unable 
to  pay  more  without  dropping  into  bankrui)tcy ;  kept 
up  the  strike;  and  the  masters  put  their  furnaces 
out  of  blast,  extinguished  their  fires,  made  work  im- 
I)ossible  for  a  long  period,  and  so  brought  calamity 


IS  JUSTICE  A  PERIL  TO   CAPITALISTS  ?        261 

on  the  trade  of  a  whole  district.  This  was  their 
proof  that  the  wages  asked  could  not  be  paid.  The 
industrial  world  abounds  with  similar  evidence  that 
employers  are  often  sincere  when  they  say  they  can- 
not pay  higher  wages,  and  live.  Of  course,  if  they 
do  not  live,  the  working-men  cannot  be  employed. 

What  if  we  could  give  a  majority  of  working-men 
employment  at  what  I  call  fair  wages?  Can  we 
bring  all  working-men  into  employment  ?  Must  such 
as  cannot  find  employment  at  fair  wages  go  to  the 
workhouse  ?  Is  it  not  better  to  accept  half  a  loaf  as 
wages  than  nothing?  If  there  is  only  a  fixed  amount 
of  bread  to  be  divided,  and  mouths  are  too  many, 
must  not  some  live  on  half-rations?  Must  not  some 
die?  Would  it  not  be  better  if  some  were  never 
born  ?  John  Stuart  Mill  says  society  might  possibly 
take  care  of  all  the  laborers  now  on  the  planet,  but 
that  we  cannot  be  called  upon  to  take  care  of  as 
many  more  human  beings  as  they  who  are  already 
here  choose  to  bring  into  existence.  Unless  there 
be  some  check  on  population,  there  will  be  no  safety 
for  society,  even  if  capital  should  undertake  to  pro- 
vide work  for  all.  Philanthropy  itself  cannot  promise 
to  do  that ;  and  therefore.  Mill  thinks,  it  looks  as  if 
Ricardo  were  right,  and  as  if  we  must  adhere  to  his 
dismal  doctrines. 

I  see  no  way  out  of  the  wilderness  into  which 
"our  discussion  of  labor  and  socialism  has  led  us, 
but  through  adherence  to  our  fundamental  maxim,  — 
definitions  first,  and  then,  following  definitions,  clear 
ideas  in  logical  order  as  stepping-stones  across  every 


262  LABOR. 

marsh.  On  my  study  table  there  is  a  collection  of  treas- 
ure or  rubbish  —  I  hardly  know  which  to  call  it — on 
political  economy:  ten  or  twelve  feet  of  volumes 
representing  the  best  discussions  in  social  science  for 
the  last  two  hundred  years.  Gather  and  examine  in 
chronological  order  any  such  collection  of  books,  and 
you  will  find  that  down  to  about  1840  or  1850,  they 
are  full  of  the  see-saw  theory  of  wages  and  profits, 
and  teach  a  godless  science ;  a  series  of  propositions 
utterly  without  piety,  and  having  in  mind  no  Chris- 
tian principles.  About  1840  and  1850,  after  the  re- 
form-laws in  Great  Britain  had  come  into  force,  you 
find  this  series  of  books  changing  position  ;  and  God 
be  praised  that  to:day  political  economy  does  not 
deserve  to  be  called  the  dismal  science  ! 

Here  is  a  series  of  propositions  which  I  have  not 
extracted  from  any  book,  but  upon  which  I  am  will- 
ing to  put  my  feet  in  the  tangle  of  this  morass,  out 
of  which,  perhaps,  some  of  you  have  thought  that 
we  should  never  escape. 

Natural  wages  have  been  defined  here,  and  I 
must  now  attempt  a  definition  of  natural  profits. 
Face  to  face  with  the  see-saw  theory  in  political 
economy,  our  question  is  whether  natural  wages  and 
natural  profits  are  consistent  with  each  other. 

1.  Natural  profits  consist  of  three  parts,  —  interest 
on  capital,  insurance  against  risk,  and  remuneration 
for  superintendence. 

This  is  a  difficult  and  yet  a  standard  definition, 
and  in  its  support  both  the  authorities  of  the  older 
and  those  of  the  newer  school  of  political  economists 
are  agreed.     (See  Fawcett's  Manual,  p.  160.) 


IS   JUSTICE  A  PERIL  TO   CAPITALISTS  ?        263 

Whoever  puts  money  into  business  of  course  ex- 
pects to  get  back  as  much  as  he  would  receive  in 
interest  if  he  were  to  lend  his  funds.  In  England, 
where  the  rate  of  interest  is  low,  this  portion  of  profit 
may  reasonably  enough  be  low;  but  in  Australia, 
where  the  rate  of  interest  is  ten  per  cent,  the  profit 
ought  to  be  higher,  because  money  is  worth  more  at 
interest.  All  these  matters  are  parts  of  arithmetic. 
I  am  not  here  to  appeal  to  you  in  the  name  of  philan- 
thropy against  the  multiplication-table.  Fair  profits 
should  include  interest  on  capital ;  but  this  portion 
of  profits  should  not  amount,  as  it  often  does,  to 
twenty,  thirty,  and  fifty  per  cent,  in  a  country  where 
capital  can  be  borrowed  for  ten  or  six  or  perhaps  four 
per  cent  interest. 

Fair  profits  also  include  insurance  against  risk,  and 
this  will  be  high  or  low  according  to  circumstances 
in  different  cases.  Remuneration  for  risk,  capitalists 
estimate  high  enough  if  they  have  their  own  way. 
An  author,  publishing  a  book,  is  told  he  must  not 
have  any  large  percentage  of  the  profit,  because  he 
does  not  take  any  risk.  The  publisher  takes  all  the 
risk ;  and  so  even  a  Longfellow,  I  suppose,  obtains 
only  about  ten  per  cent  on  his  copyright,  although 
one  would  think  there  is  no  risk  in  many  cases  of 
publication.  The  rule  is  that  the  publisher  taking 
the  risk  must  be  compensated.  How  shall  we  deter- 
mine how  much  this  portion  of  profit  should  be  ? 
This  is,  or  ought  to  be,  a  matter  of  arithmetic,  too. 
You  go  to  the  insurance  companies,  and  ask  for  how 
much  they  will  insure  certain  trades  or  certain  kinds 


264  LABOB. 

of  property,  and  you  will  find  that  there  can  be  a 
very  exact  calculation  made  here. 

2.  As  the  legal  rate  of  interest  shows  what  the 
first  part  of  natural  profits  should  be,  so  the  average 
rate  of  insurance  shows  what  the  second  part  of  nat- 
ural profits  should  be. 

You  are  not  here  to  take  the  capitalist's  word  that 
his  risks  ought  to  have  such  and  such  remuneration. 
You  will  do  better  to  go  to  the  insurance  companies ; 
you  will  do  best  to  study  competitions  of  capitalists 
with  each  other,  and  so  ascertain  what  the  second 
part  of  profits  naturally  should  be.  There  should, 
of  course,  be  remuneration  for  superintendence ;  and 
8ome  political  economists  say  that  the  way  to  find 
out  how  much  should  be  allowed  for  this  third  ele- 
ment in  natural  profits,  is  to  take  the  gross  excess  of 
earnings  over  expenditures,  and  subtract  the  first  two 
parts  of  natural  profits.  What  is  left  ought  to  go  as 
pay  for  superintendence.  That  is  a  partisan  plea. 
There  is  a  way  of  ascertaining  what  is  the  just  remu- 
neration for  superintendence.  What  can  you  hire 
superintendence  for?  You  are  yourself,  let  us  sup- 
pose, not  able  to  manage  your  own  business,  and 
must  have  an  agent.  What  must  you  pay  liim  ?  He 
puzzles  his  head  with  your  great  enterprises.  You 
are  sick,  you  are  withdrawn  entirely,  you  are  a  sleep- 
ing partner  in  the  concern,  and  somebody  takes  your 
place.     What  do  you  pay  him  ? 

3.  Wliat  would  be  paid  as  wages  of  superintend- 
ence, is  the  just  measure  of  the  amount  of  the  third 
element  in  natural  profits. 


IS  JUSTICE   A  PERIL  TO   CAPITALISTS  ?        265 

Taking  the  legal  rate  of  interest  for  the  first  part 
of  natural  profits,  and  asking  the  insurance  compa- 
nies, and  learning  of  the  competitions  between  capi- 
talists, what  the  second  part  should  be,  and  count- 
ing in  for  the  third  part  what  you  would  pay  to  an 
agent  who  should  occupy  your  place,  I  say  that  add- 
ing these  three  things  together  you  have  what  ought 
to  be  the  profits  of  industry  on  the  average.  Some 
kinds  of  business  have  a  high  risk ;  and,  if  that  be 
surmounted,  the  profit  will  be  very  large,  because  the 
insurance  against  risk  must  be  very  large.  Some 
have  to  pay  large  interest  on  capital,  if  they  borrow 
from  banks,  and  so  the  bank-rates  will  lift  the  size  of 
natural  profits.  I  will  make  allowance  for  all  these 
circumstances;  concede  to  the  capitalist  all  just 
claims;  and  yet  must  affirm  that  it  is  fair  to  define 
natural  profits  as  consisting  of  these  three  things,  and 
of  these  only,  —  interest  on  capital,  insurance  against 
risk,  and  remuneration  for  superintendence.  Every 
thing  in  my  argument  depends  on  that  definition. 

4.  The  rate  of  profit  in  any  business  depends  on 
the  excess  of  earnings  over  expenses. 

This  is  a  truism ;  but,  as  Bonamy  Price  remarks, 
"  Truisms  have  great  place  in  political  economy,"  and 
he  might  have  said,  in  every  other  science.  They 
are  the  self-evident  propositions  which  are  the  sup- 
porting framework  of  all  reasoning. 

As  I  could  afford  on  no  occasion,  in  the  presence 
of  scholars  here,  to  put  before  you  careless  state- 
ments, so  now,  in  the  presence  of  men  of  affairs 
whom  this  subject  has  attracted  to  this  hall,  I  dare 


266  LABOR. 

not  talk  sentimentally.  I  must  face  the  stem  facts 
of  trade ;  I  must  recognize  the  power  of  the  law  of 
supply  and  demand;  but  do  I  not  carry  your  assent 
to  my  next  proposition  ? 

5.  The  excess  of  earnings  over  expenses  depends 
on  the  rate  of  interest  charged  by  banks  for  bor- 
rowed capital,  the  rate  of  insurance  against  risk,  the 
cost  of  machinery,  the  state  of  the  market,  the  rate 
of  wages,  and  a  multitude  of  other  circumstances, 
chief  among  which  is  the  efficiency  of  labor. 

6.  The  rate  of  profit,  therefore,  depends  on  a 
variety  of  circumstances,  of  which  the  rate  of  wages 
is  only  one. 

7.  Ricardo's  doctrine  that  the  rate  of  profit  de- 
pends on  wages  only,  is  therefore  an  inaccurate, 
because  an  inexhaustive,  statement  of  the  case. 

8.  }V7ien  the  efficiency  of  labor  is  increased  by  the 
improvement  of  machinery^  or  any  other  cause,  profits 
may  be  increased,  although  wages  may  remain  the  same. 

9.  It  may  happen  from  the  same  causes  that  both  the 
rate  of  wages  and  the  rate  of  profit  may  be  increased  at 
the  same  time. 

There  is  no  see-saw  in  the  relations  between  labor 
and  capital,  if  these  propositions  are  true ;  and  now 
let  us  test  them.  Here  is  a  factory.  It  is  supplied 
with  machinery  for  making  cotton  cloth.  Every  ten 
men  in  the  factory  can  make  a  hundred  yards  of 
cotton  cloth  a  day.  Now,  some  Edison  invents  new 
machinery,  and  by  the  use  of  this  ten  men  can  make 
a  thousand  yards  of  cloth  a  day.  Let  us  suppose 
that  the  inventor  of  the  machinery  has  been  so  skil- 


IS  JUSTICE   A  PERIL  TO  CAPITALISTS  ?        267 

ful  as  to  make  it  cheaply.  Let  the  machinery  of  the 
new  sort  cost  no  more  than  that  of  the  old  sort.  If 
a  hundred  hours  of  labor  with  imperfect  machinery 
produce  a  hundred  yards  of  cloth,  and  a  hundred 
hours  of  labor,  with  new. and  no  more  costly  ma- 
chinery, will  produce  a  thousand  yards,  and  you  pay 
your  laborers  the  same  wages  for  running  the  new 
machinery  as  for  running  the  old,  is  it  not  perfectly 
evident,  that,  by  the  use  of  the  new  machinery  and 
the  increased  efficiency  of  the  labor,  you  have 
doubled,  trebled,  or  it  may  be  increased  tenfold,  your 
profits,  while  yet  wages  remain  the  same  ?  But 
Ricardo  says  that  as  wages  go  up,  profits  go  down, 
and  as  profits  go  up,  wages  go  down.  That  is  not 
the  case,  as  this  example  shows.  By  the  use  of  the 
improved  machinery  here,  the  factory  produces  ten 
times  what  it  did  before,  with  the  same  labor.  The 
machinery  costs  no  more,  the  wages  of  the  ten  opera- 
tives are  no  higher,  but  the  efficiency  of  their  labor 
is  increased  tenfold,  and  profits  are  increased  many 
times  in  consequence.  The  price  of  cotton  cloth 
may  fall  if  you  produce  too  much  of  it,  but  as  it  falls 
in  price  it  will  find  more  buyers.  It  is  very  evident 
that  profits  may  be  increased  although  wages  remain 
the  same. 

It  is,  moreover,  perfectly  conceivable,  that  the  new 
machinery  might  be  so  much  better  than  the  old,  that 
the  wages  might  be  lifted  somewhat,  and  yet  profits 
be  increased  at  the  same  time.  You  paid  these  labor- 
ers a  dollar  and  a  half  a  day  with  the  old  machinery ; 
suppose   you  pay  them  two  dollars  a  day  with  the 


268  LABOR. 

new:  your  profits  might  yet  be  increased,  for  that 
rise  of  wages  would  not  use  up  the  margin  created 
by  the  improved  efficiency  of  labor.  Where  is  the 
business-man  who  does  not  see  that  Ricardo's  posi- 
tion fails  in  this  case  ?  But  this  one  example  tests 
the  problem.  This  case  is  typical  of  every  steady 
employment. 

10.  It  is  a  most  mischievous  falsehood  to  teach 
that  wages  and  profits  are  a  see-saw,  that  they  are 
drawn  from  the  same  fund,  and  that  they  necessarily 
increase  or  diminish  at  the  expense  of  each  other. 

11.  It  is  this  falsehood  which  misleads  both  capital- 
ists and  laborers  into  the  notion  that  under  fixed 
natural  law  capital  and  labor  must  be  at  war,  and 
that  the  industrial  world  is  a  battlefield. 

12.  Large  profits  do  not  come  from  low  wages  so 
much  as  from  large  establishments  well  managed. 

Improved  machinery  is  only  one  of  many  means 
of  increasing  the  efficiency  of  labor.  De  Tocque- 
ville  tells  us,  and  so  do  the  political  economists,  that, 
other  tilings  being  equal,  the  profits  of  an  establish- 
ment are  in  proportion  to  its  size.  I  add  to  my  fac- 
tory floors  square  rod  after  square  rod,  until  I  luive 
acres  filled  with  whizzing  Jooms.  In  various  ways  I 
can  now  cheapen  the  cost  of  superintendence.  I  may 
have  a  railway  opened  to  the  market,  instead  of  send- 
ing my  goods  by  the  broad-wheeled  wagon.  All  tliis 
time,  while  my  profits  are  increasing,  wages  may  re- 
main the  same.  How  is  it  we  have  lived  under  this 
lip  so  long,  and  have  believed  that  all  the  capitalist 
gets,  the  laborer  must  lose,  and  that  all  the  laborer 


IS  JUSTICE   A   PERIL  TO   CAPITALISTS  ?        269 

gets,  the  capitalist  must  lose  ?  It  is  that  theory  which 
makes  the  bitter  blood  between  capital  and  labor 
oftener  than  you  think ;  and  it  is  a  lie,  every  syllable 
of  it !     [Applause.] 

Here  is  a  merchant  on  India  Wharf  in  Boston ;  and 
he  sends  his  goods  to  India,  and  brings  back  cargoes 
from  there.  He  may  have  a  fair  voyage,  or  he  may 
have  a  storm,  just  as  the  agriculturist  may  have  a 
wet  season  or  a  dry.  Now,  what  have  the  wet  sea- 
son or  the  dry,  what  have  the  storms  or  the  calms, 
to  do  with  the  rate  of  wages?  Undoubtedly  wages 
are  one  element  in  the  expenses  of  every  business, 
but  they  are  not  the  only  element.  They  are  only 
one  finger  on  the  palm.  It  may  be  they  are  the  fore- 
finger ;  but  these  other  expenses  —  accident,  rate  of 
interest  for  the  capital  you  must  borrow,  access  to  the 
market,  efficiency  of  labor,  insurance  against  risk,  a 
score  of  circumstances  —  are  the  other  fingers  on  the 
palm.  And,  after  all,  your  own  personal  superintend- 
ence, your  wise  combination  of  details,  is  the  thumb 
on  that  palm.  Wages,  even  if  they  are  the  fore- 
finger, are  evidently  not  as  important  a  part  of  the 
problem  as  these  other  circumstances  taken  together. 
It  is  utterly  false  to  go  upon  the  supposition  that  the 
hand  of  industry  is  only  a  hook,  and  that  wages  are 
its  only  finger.  Let  us  open  our  minds  to  the  whole 
problem.  Let  us  take  into  view,  as  laboring-men  find 
it  difl&cult  to  do  at  times,  all  the  expenses  of  the  em- 
ployer ;  and  let  the  employer  take  into  view  all  his 
sources  of  profit ;  and  it  will  be  seen  that  there  has 
rarely  been  taught  authoritatively  a  more  mischiev- 


270  LABOR. 

ous  falsehood  in  political  economy  than  the  assertion 
that  wages  and  capital  are  of  necessity  an  eternal  see- 
saw, putting  the  laborer  and  the  employer  into  a  state 
of  constant  war. 

13.  The  prosperity  of  laborers  increases  their  pur- 
chasing power,  and  so  adds  to  the  profit  of  capital. 

Where  is  the  business-man  who  wants  all  the 
working-men  of  the  United  States  reduced  to  the 
condition  of  the  Japanese  and  Chinese  laborers? 
Do  you  think  it  would  add  to  your  prosperity  to 
grind  down  the  working  class  to  the  condition  of 
squalor  and  barbarism  ?  Everj^body  knows  that  the 
way  to  get  money  is  to  increase  the  purchasing  power 
of  the  people.  You  want  to  sell  your  goods,  there- 
fore you  want  customers.  You  must  therefore  see 
that  there  is  high  commercial  sagacity  in  keeping  up 
the  standard  of  living  of  the  average  working-man. 
Let  him  be  able  to  buy,  and  you  will  make  profit  in 
selling.  Let  him  not  be  able  to  buy,  and  very  soon 
you  must  take  care  of  him  in  the  workhouse,  or  shut 
down  your  factories  in  part,  and  so  reduce  profits. 

14.  In  the  steady  trades,  it  is  historically  true 
that  wages  and  profits  in  the  last  half-century  have 
usually  risen  together. 

Bread  is  cheaper  now  in  England  than  it  was  fifty 
years  ago ;  sugar  and  tea  are  cheaper ;  average  prices 
for  clothing  are  lower;  but  in  most  of  the  steady 
trades  the  wages  of  the  laborers  have  risen  in  the 
last  fifty  years  in  Great  Britain,  and  not  merely  their 
nominal  wages,  but  their  real  wages,  or  the  pur- 
chasing power  of  their  days  of  labor.     At  the  same 


IS   JUSTICE  A   PERIL  TO   CAPITALISTS  ?        271 

time  who  does  not  see  the  prosperity  of  the  manu- 
facturing class  in  Great  Britain,  if  you  take  it  on  the 
average  ?  Great  Britain  is  wealthy  because  she  is  a 
factory,  and  prosperous  as  such.  Everybody  will 
grant  me  the  proposition,  that,  taken  on  the  average, 
the  manufacturing  business  of  Great  Britain  is  pros- 
perous, and  that  its  profits  have  risen  altliough  the 
wages  of  operatives  have  risen. 

"-  The  vast  increase  of  the  wealth  of  rich  men  in 
England  during  the  last  sixty  years,"  says  Professor 
Bonamy  Price,  "is  a  fact  perceived  by  every  eye. 
How  has  it  fared  with  the  laboring  classes?  Do 
they  receive,  would  they  for  an  instant  accept,  the 
same  wages  now  as  they  did  then?  The  laborers 
have  reached  a  far  higher  standard  of  existence. 
A  much  more  elevated  minimum  of  wages  has 
been  secured.  This  is  the  result  of  efficient  labor, 
heartily  applied  with  the  aid  of  machinery,  pro- 
ducing much  work,  cheapening  commodities,  enlar- 
ging the  powers  of  consumers  to  buy,  and  diffusing 
enlarged  property  in  every  class.  These  results  do 
not  breathe  a  syllable  about  antagonism  between 
masters  and  workmen."  (^Practical  Political  Econ- 
omy, pp.  237,  238.) 

Before  I  close,  let  me  draw  a  distinction  which  may 
clear  up  the  remaining  vapor  of  this  theme. 

15.  In  the  fluctuating  employments .  the  just  rela- 
tions of  capital  and  labor  are  difficult  to  ascertain, 
and  have  to  be  found  out  by  the  stern  application  of 
the  law  of  supply  and  demand ;  but  the  principles 
applying  to  other  trades  govern  the  fluctuating  also. 


272  LABOE. 

The  trouble,  I  suppose,  between  capitalists  and 
laborers,  often  is  that  the  difficulties  which  arise  in 
the  fluctuating  trades  are  supposed  to  belong  to  the 
very  root  of  the  relations  of  labor  and  capital.  It  is 
true  that  in  the  fluctuating  trades  there  is  a  great 
chance  for  rascals  to  make  money  when  they  ought 
not ;  there  is  a  great  chance  to  grind  the  faces  of  the 
shop-girl  and  the  poor  clerk  and  the  average  opera- 
tive. My  discussion  here  in  previous  lectures  has 
been  concerning  the  fluctuating  trades  rather  than 
the  steady  trades.  When  we  prove,  as  we  have 
done,  that,  in  the  steady  trades,  wages  and  profits 
are  not  a  see-saw,  we  ought  to  believe  that  in  the 
fluctuating  trades  they  are  not  a  see-saw,  if  we  ascer- 
tain what  justice  is.  Here  is  my  hand ;  I  show  you 
three  fingers  which  shut  toward  the  pahn.  These 
are  the  steady  trades,  and  they  are  the  majority  of 
the  trades ;  but  the  fluctuating  trades  belong  to  the 
same  palm,  and  the  other  finger  will  be  found  to 
shut  as  the  three  fingers  do.  If  I  prove  that  in  steady 
trades  the  interests  of  capital  and  labor  are  identical, 
I  undertake  to  affirm,  by  the  argument  of  analogy, 
that,  if  we  could  find  out  what  true  justice  would  be 
to  the  capitalist  and  to  the  laborer  in  the  fluctuating 
employments,  we  should  find  the  same  principles 
governing  those  portions  of  our  industries. 

16.  It  is,  therefore,  evident  both  from  history  and 
from  correct  economical  principles,  that  justice  is  no 
I)eril  to  capitalists,  nor  fair  wages  a  diminution  of 
fair  profits.     [Applause.] 


X. 

AEE  TRADES-UNIONS  A  NUESERY  OF  SOCIALISM  ? 


THE    ONE   HUNDRED    AND    TWENTIETH    LECTURE    IN    THE 

BOSTON   MONDAY  LECTURESHIP,   DELIVERED   IN 

TREMONT   TEMPLE,   JAN.   6. 


The  nineteenth  is  the  centmy  of  the  workingmen.  —  Gladstonk. 

L'aristocratie  manufacturi^re  de  nos  jours,  apr^  avoir  appauvri 
et  abruti  lea  hommes  dont  elle  se  sert,  les  livre  en  temjis  de  criae 
k  la  charity  publique,  poor  les  nourrir.  —  De  Tocqdbvuajl 


X. 


ARE   TRADES-UNIONS   A  NURSERY  OP 
SOCIALISM  ? 

PRELUDE  ON  CUEEENT  EVENTS. 

C^SAE  could  not  drive  his  chariot  around  the  Ro- 
man Empire  in  less  than  an  hundred  days.  We  can 
now  send  a  letter  around  the  world  in  ninety-six. 

There  was  a  time  when  a  traveller  could  start 
at  Alexandria,  in  Egypt,  and  following  the  basaltic 
pavements  of  the  Roman  highways,  broken  only  by 
brief  trips  on  the  sea,  reach  Carthage  and  the  Straits 
of  Gibraltar,  roll  across  the  plains  and  hills  of  Spain 
and  France,  sail  over  the  surly  English  Channel,  go 
northward  to  the  barbaric  borders  of  Scotland,  then 
return  through  Leyden  and  Cologne  to  Milan,  and 
thence  drive  his  unmolested  chariot  under  the  shad- 
ows of  the  Alps  and  Balkans  to  Constantinople, 
and  through  turbulent  Asia  Minor  to  Antioch,  and 
thence  over  the  Lebanon  range  and  along  the  Syrian 
plain  and  the  green  valley  of  the  Nile  to  Alexandria 
again,  a  distance  of  more  than  seven  thousand  miles. 
Tlie  circuit  of  these  outmost  roads  of  the  Roman 

275 


276-  LABOR. 

world  could  not  be  made  in  less  than  one  hundred 
days ;  but  in  less  than  that  time  the  steamship  and 
the  locomotive,  however  unpoetic  they  may  seem  in 
contrast  with  the  wheels  on  which  Caesar  rode,  can 
now  be  driven  around  the  globe. 

Throughout  the  empire,  the  majesty  of  Rome,  as 
Pliny  proudly  declares,  was  the  shield  of  the  way- 
farer in  every  place.  Epictetus  and  the  Alexandrian 
Philo  dwell  with  rapture  on  the  security  of  the  trav- 
eller and  the  facility  of  intercourse  in  the  Roman 
world.  "  Cffisar,"  writes  the  Stoic  philosopher,  "  has 
procured  us  a  profound  peace :  there  are  neither  wars, 
nor  battles,  nor  great  robberies,  nor  piracies;  but 
we  may  travel  at  all  hours,  and  sail  from  east,  to 
west."  Modern  scholars  are  never  weary  of  extol- 
ling the  magnificence  of  the  Roman  Empire,  and  the 
unity  it  gave  to  the  law  and  trade  and  political 
principles  of  the  nations  under  its  sway.  Greek 
scholars  kept  school  in  Spain.  The  women  of  a 
Roman  colony  in  Switzerland  employed  a  goldsmith 
from  Asia  Minor.  In  the  cities  of  Gaul  were  Greek 
painters  and  sculptors.  Gauls  and  Germans  served 
as  a  body-guard  of  a  Jewish  king  at  Jerusalem. 
(Fbiedlander,  Sittengeschichte  Roms.')  In  the  reign 
of  Claudius  an  embassy  came  to  Rome  from  a  prince 
of  the  island  of  Ceylon. 

Such  was  the  ancient  unity  of  mankind  ;  but  what 
is  tlie  modern  ?  From  Rome  to  the  cataracts  of  tlie 
Nile  there  stretched  a  distance  so  vast  that  the  an- 
cient imagination  used  to  faint  over  it.  This  distance 
is  only  equal  to  that  from  St.  Louis  to  San  Francisco 


TEADES-UNIONS   AND   SOCIALISM.  277 

Rome  and  Athens  are  not  as  far  apart  as  New  York 
and  Chicago.  Rome  and  London  are  not  as  far  from 
each  other  as  Boston  and  St.  Louis.  Plymouth  Rock 
and  Pike's  Peak  are  farther  apart  than  the  Colise- 
um and  the  Pyramids.  The  surf  of  the  Bay  of  Fundy 
and  the  waterfalls  of  the  Yosemite  are  more  distant 
from  each  other  than  London  and  Thebes,  or  than 
the  Straits  of  Gibraltar  and  the  frosty  Caucasus. 

What  was  the  effect  of  the  ancient  unity  of  na- 
tions? Assimilation  in  law,  language,  trade,  and 
social  customs.  A  vague  feeling  of  human  brother- 
hood. Terence,  before  a  turbulent  Roman  audience, 
once  happened  to  pronounce  the  line  :  "  I  am  a  man, 
and  I  regard  nothing  that  concerns  man  as  foreign  to 
me ;  "  and  the  populace,  accustomed  to  savage  fights 
in  the  Coliseum,  a  populace  degraded  by  a  mythology 
in  which  the  gods  were  represented  as  lepers,  a  pop- 
ulace sunk  in  the  luxurious  forms  of  barbarism  char- 
acteristic of  old  Rome,  applauded  the  strange  senti- 
ment. Celsus,  however,  one  of  the  early  opponents 
of  Christianity,  when  the  question  came  before  him 
whether  any  one  religion  could  ever  be  adopted  for  the 
world,  answered  his  own  inquiry  by  a  sneer :  "  Who- 
ever believes  that  such  a  religion  is  possible  is  insane." 

What  is  to  be  the  effect  of  the  modern  unity  of 
nations?  What  are  the  opportunities  of  Christian- 
ity now  as  compared  with  those  it  had  in  Caesar's 
vaunted  day  ?  How  shall  the  question  of  Celsus  be 
answered  face  to  face  with  a  world  girdled  with 
achievements  of  which  Rome  never  dreamed  ?  When 
Paul    died,    the   Roman   rim    of    land    around    the 


278  LABOB. 

Mediterranean  was  the  world.  Scholars  have  been 
taught,  and  I  think  they  have  allowed  the  public 
to  vest  too  long  in,  an  enthusiasm  concerning  that 
ancient  opportunity  utterly  out  of  proportion  to  its 
size.  No  one  knows  how  many  people  were  in  the 
Roman  Empire  at  its  best,  but  the  estimates  vary  from 
eighty  to  one  hundred  and  twenty  millions.  Take 
the  average,  and  Paul  had  an  opportunity  of  reach- 
ing, under  the  shield  of  the  Roman  power,  fewer 
people  than  will  be  in  the  United  States  alone  at  the 
second  American  centennial.  We  fall  into  acclama- 
tions over  the  achievements  of  the  Roman  Empire, 
and  our  scholars  dwell  with  fervor  on  the  influence 
of  the  unity  of  Rome  upon  the  spread  of  Christian- 
ity in  the  first  century ;  but  we  are  very  inadequately 
moved  when  asked  to  contemplate  the  growing  lines 
of  intercommunication  between  modern  continents 
on  which  there  is  now  not  a  single  foreign  shore. 

Whoever  will  glance  at  a  map  of  the  routes  of 
ocean  traffic  will  see  that  the  world  is  fast  becoming 
commercially  a  unit.  The  vast  interests  of  ocean 
transit,  and  the  yet  vaster  of  land  transit,  are  every 
year  more  closely  interwoven.  The  United  States 
and  Great  Britain,  if  they  unite  against  piracy  ou 
the  oceans,  will  be  united  against  all  war  on  the 
land.  Pompey  and  Cajsar,  it  was  once  said  at  Rome, 
had  cleared  the  Mediterranean  of  pirates.  Great  Brit- 
ain and  the  commercial  interests  of  the  United  States, 
it  may  now  almost  be  said,  have  cleared  all  oceans  of 
pirates.  Whoever  looks  at  the  lines  of  ocean  transit 
shooting  out  in  thick  warp  and  woof  from  coast  to 


TRADES-UNIONS   AND   SOCIALISM.  279 

coast,  will  see  the  shuttles  of  Almighty  Providence 
weaving  the  whole  world  into  a  commercial  unity 
far  closer  than  ever  existed  under  Caesar  in  the 
Roman  Empire.  By  a  preconcerted  arrangement,  the 
shores  of  nearly  every  sea,  and  multitudes  in  the  chief 
cities  of  the  planet,  were  united  yesterday  in  prayer 
for  the  evangelization  of  the  world.  Christian  union 
was  the  theme  of  the  hour.  It  appears  to  be  also 
the  theme  of  the  Supreme  Powers  who  govern  the 
ages. 

Two  points  are  incontrovertible,  —  that  prophecy 
has  been  fulfilled,  and  that  we  have  reason,  there- 
fore, to  believe  that  it  will  be  again.  I  open  a  book 
three  thousand  years  old,  and  I  read  that  the  stone 
cut  out  of  the  mountain  shall  fill  the  whole  earth. 
That  prophecy  has  come  to  pass.  I  read  that  there 
will  be  a  day  when  a  kingdom  shall  be  given  to  a 
religion  founded  in  a  specified  centre  of  the  world. 
That  day  has  come.  Here  is  a  book,  whether  you 
call  it  inspired  or  not,  which  predicted  the  coming 
of  this  kingdom  long  before  the  first  upstretch- 
ing  aurora  of  its  light  was  seen  above  the  east. 
That  book  has  kept  its  promise  with  the  nations. 
It  has  other  promises  yet  unfulfilled.  It  will  keep 
those  also.  When  I  look  at  the  map  of  the  world, 
and  see  the  shuttles  of  intercommunication  among 
nations  thrown  out  North,  South,  East,  and  West, 
I  hear  the  unfolding  of  the  leaves  of  prophecy. 
The  time  has  come  when  knowledge  is  increased, 
and  many  run  to  and  fro.  It  is  within  the  power 
of  the   Christians   now  on   the   globe   to  cause  the 


280  LABOR. 

gospel  to  be  preached  to  every  living  human  creature 
before  the  end  of  this  century.     [Applause.] 

What  has  Providence  meant  in  carrying  forward 
all  the  years  of  human  history  according  to  a  given 
plan?  I  believe  that  what  God  does,  he  from  the 
first  intended  to  do.  When  I  sat  under  Abraham's 
oak  at  Hebron,  I  opened  the  Scriptures,  and  read  that 
from  a  chosen  man  should  spring  a  chosen  family; 
and  that  from  a  chosen  family  should  spring  a  chosen 
race  ;  and  that  from  a  chosen  race  should  spring  a 
founder  of  a  new  religious  empire ;  and  that  out  of 
a  chosen  race  should  thus  come  a  chosen  religion ; 
and  that  this  religion  should  embrace  the  earth. 
There  stood  the  prophecies  on  the  pages  which  I 
opened  under  the  Syrian  skies.  No  one  doubts  that 
these  predictions  were  written  ages  before  the  date  at 
which  they  began  to  be  fulfilled.  They  are  numerous, 
and  full  of  details.  Prophecies  concerning  the  dis- 
persion of  the  Jews,  rationalism  drops  like  hot  iron 
every  time  it  dares  to  discuss  them.  As  I  sat  three 
hours  alone  under  Abraham's  oak,  and  tead  these 
statements  concerning  chosen  man,  family,  nation, 
and  religion,  I  could  not  but  be  impressed,  I  will 
not  say  with  the  feelings  of  superstition,  but  certainly 
with  those  of  awe  and  terror  and  faith  and  hope.  I 
revered  straightforward  thinking,  and  looked  at  the 
page  of  history.  I  could  not  but  say  that  these 
mysterious  prophecies  have  come  to  pass.  There  was 
a  chosen  man.  There  was  a  chosen  family.  There 
was  a  chosen  nation.  There  has  come  from  that 
nation  a  chosen  religion.     It  is  spreading  over  the 


TEADES-TTNIONS   AND   SOCIALISM.  281 

world.  When  I  looked  upward  toward  the  sky, 
through  the  boughs  of  the  oak,  and  remembered 
how,  under  one  of  the  progenitors  of  that  tree, 
Abraham  entertained  angels  unawares,  I  could  not 
but  feel  that  human  history,  casting  out  its  boughs 
in  every  direction,  —  in  Asia,  in  Europe,  in  America, 
and  in  the  isles  of  the  sea,  —  is  under  the  control  of 
a  mysterious  Providence  ;  and  that  God,  who  has  for 
three  thousand  and  four  thousand  years  so  conducted 
human  affairs  as  to  bring  into  power  a  certain  set  of 
religious  opinions,  will  go  on  doing  that  in  time  to 
come.  [Applause.]  I  shall  not,  for  one,  drop  into 
anxiety  at  any  little  re-actionary  eddy,  when  I  find 
that  an  irresistible  gulf-current,  bursting  out  of  the 
tropics  of  human  history,  is  moving  in  one  direction, 
and  has  been  so  moving  for  thousajids  of  years. 
[Applause.] 

Fasten  attention  upon  the  day  when  Abraham  sat 
under  the  oaks  at  Hebron,  and  the  day  when  Paul 
went  out  of  the  Ostian  gate  to  die,  and  upon  our 
present  day.  Three  points  determine  the  circumfer- 
ence of  any  curve.  Draw  a  circle  through  these 
three  points,  —  Abraham's  oak,  the  Ostian  gate  when 
Paul  went  through  it,  and  the  present  hour,  —  and  I 
undertake  to  say  that  any  man  who  loves  clear  ideas, 
and  will  stand  at  the  centre  of  that  historical  circle, 
will  be  thrown  into  awe  before  the  fulfilment  of 
prophecy.  I  set  no  dates.  Prophecy  is,  perhaps, 
never  adequately  explained  except  by  its  fulfilment. 
I  will  not  attack  the  devout  scholars  who  have  lately, 
in  a  prophetic  conference,  discussed  these  topics  with 


282  LABOK. 

great  learning  and  earnestness.  Much  mischief,  no 
doubt,  may  come  from  mysticism  on  the  topic  of 
prophecy;  but  more  mischief  may  come  from  our 
coldness,  from  our  indifference  on  this  theme,  and 
from  our  unwillingness  to  look  upon  the  absolutely 
overawing  facts  that  prophecy  has  been  fulfilled; 
that,  as  the  past  has  been,  so  the  future  will  be ;  and 
that  as  God  has  kept,  so  he  will  continue  to  keep,  his 
word  with  us.  [Applause.]  The  same  mysterious 
predictions  which  have  been  fulfilled  to  the  letter 
for  four  thousand  years  foretell  also  the  enswathing 
of  the  globe  with  a  kingdom  which  now  very  nearly 
touches  arms  around  it. 

Nay,  I  may  affirm  that  the  arms  already  touch. 
Suppose  that  Lord  Beaconsfield  obtains  what  he  says 
he  is  seeking,  —  a  scientific  boundary  for  India,  or 
the  Himalayas,  as  a  barrier  against  attack  from  the 
north.  England  is  now  led  by  a  political  party 
greatly  blind  to  what  is  just.  When  the  pride  of 
the  average  Briton  is  offended,  his  conscience  easily 
goes  to  sleep.  England  fears  attack  from  Russia,  or 
it  is  the  scheme  of  her  present  rulers  to  cause  her  to 
do  so.  The  anticipation  tliat  some  day  a  troublesome 
attack  may  be  made  on  Britisli  power  in  the  East,  by 
Russia,  is  causing  not  a  few  good  men  on  the  other 
side  of  the  Atlantic  to  hold  their  peace,  while  what 
I  call  —  you  may  have  your  own  opinion ;  I  do  not 
ask  you  to  adopt  mine  —  an  unjust  attack  is  made 
on  Afghanistan.  [Applause.]  If,  however,  in  time 
past,  the  evil  that  men  have  done  has  sometimes  been 
overruled;    if  the  mischief  Crosar  and  Pompey  did 


TEADES-UNIONS  AND   SOCIALISM.  283 

was  of  indirect  use  in  the  production  of  peace  around 
the  Mediterranean ;  if  that  peace  was  used  as  a  plat- 
form on  wliich  early  Christianity  took  its  place,  if 
in  every  age  the  purposes  of  the  Supreme  Powers 
have  been  approaching  accomplishment,  no  matter 
how  men  have  acted,  —  we  must  regard  it,  I  think, 
as  probable,  that  out  of  the  turmoil  in  the  East  will 
come  in  some  way  an  advance  of  the  divine  plan  to 
give  the  globe  to  Christianity. 

If  there  should  be  a  scientific  frontier  obtained  for 
Northern  India,  any  attack  on  British  power  in  the 
East  will  be  rendered  well-nigh  impossible.  It  is 
not  from  little  Cyprus  that  Great  Britain  is  to  resist 
Hussia ;  it  is  not  even  from  the  Bosphorus  that  she 
can  successfully  protect  herself  against  the  great 
power  of  the  North.  Military  men  are  Axry  well 
agreed  with  Lord  Beaconsfield  in  the  opinion  that  it 
is  from  Afghanistan  that  British  power  in  the  East 
must  obtain  its  security. 

Give  England  a  firm  frontier  in  the  Himalayas ; 
let  that  gigantic  mountain  barrier  prevent  a  land 
attack  on  her  Eastern  Empire,  and  then,  since  there 
can  be  no  naval  attack  on  her  with  any  success,  the 
future  of  Asia  Minor,  of  Persia,  of  India,  and  of  all 
the  torrid  seaboard  of  Asia,  will  be  determined  under 
British,  and,  I  may  say,  under  American,  influences. 
We  have  a  deep  foothold  of  our  own  in  Asia  Minor. 
British  and  American  fashions  in  politics,  education, 
and  religion,  will  be  carried  steadily  on  toward  China, 
so  surely  as  the  scientific  barrier  is  established  in 
Afghanistan.     Thus,  as  Homer  said,  the  plan  of  the 


284  LABOR. 

gods  is  advancing.  Who  dares  stand  in  the  way  of 
that  plan  ?  The  unity  of  mankind  is  asserting  itself 
more  and  more ;  and  who  shall  resist  it  ? 

A  cabinet  at  Washington,  it  is  said,  talks  haughtily 
to  China,  and  desires  to  have  the  Burlingame  treaty 
modified,  or  perhaps  abrogated.  Cliina  may  easily 
consent  to  its  modification.  If  we  choose  to  abrogate 
it,  she  cannot  resist.  Possibly  there  is  danger  that 
the  Burlingame  treaty  will  be  abrogated,  out  and  out, 
and  that  America,  under  the  lead  of  a  bloodthirsty  mob 
on  the  Pacific  coast,  and  fifth-rate  politicians  there, 
will  shut  our  doors  on  the  Pacific  to  emigrants  willing 
to  earn  their  own  living.  America  has  in  California  a 
door  to  China ;  America,  in  Asia  Minor,  has  already 
opened  a  door  to  the  sunset  side  of  Asia.  If  Provi- 
dence is  proposing  the  regeneration  of  Asia  by  the 
increase  of  American  and  British  influence  along  the 
Asiatic  seaboard;  if  all  the  signs  in  the  world,  in 
short,  show  that  there  must  be  relations  of  justice 
between  China  and  the  United  States,  and  our  cabinet 
at  Washington,  wishing  to  save  the  vote  of  California 
in  a  national  election,  does  differ  from  the  Supreme 
Powers,  and  is  ready  to  do  an  act  of  injustice,  the 
ultimate  result  will  be,  that  not  the  hoodlums  of  San 
Francisco,  and  not  even  the  cabinet,  will  triumph 
over  the  plan  of  history.     [Applause.] 

The  unity  of  mankind  will  assert  itself  more  and 
more.  The  day  will  come  when  there  will  be  just 
relations  l)etwoen  the  wliole  Asiatic  seaboard  and 
America  and  England.  When  that  time  arrives,  who 
does  not  know  that  the  American  school  and   the 


TRADES-UNIONS  AND   SOCIALISM.  285 

British  and  American  missionary  societies  will  be 
welcome  to  the  Asiatic  coast?  Who  does  not  see 
that  lines  of  steamships  will  bring  labor  there  into 
new  demand  ?  Who  does  not  see  a  commercial  re- 
generation slowly  preparing  for  Asia?  Who  does 
not  find  in  the  gulf-current  bursting  out  of  the  time 
of  Abraham,  through  that  of  Paul  and  Ccesar,  and 
down  to  our  day,  an  indication  of  our  duty,  not 
merely  to  missions,  and  not  merely  toward  Great 
Britain  when  she  carries  her  power  into  Asia  Minor, 
but  also  toward  the  hoodlums  of  California,  and 
toward  all  who  would  lead  us  into  a  policy  of  in- 
justice, of  narrowness,  and  of  barbarity  ?  Let  us  not 
set  ourselves  against  the  Supreme  Powers.  When 
the  gulf-current  of  history  gathers  its  strength  against 
any  impediment,  as  in  the  case  of  slavery,  and  builds 
itself  up  behind  the  bulwark,  we  know  how  at  last 
obstacles  give  way,  and  devastation  follows. 

Let  Americans  place  no  obstacles  in  the  way  of 
the  unity  of  mankind.  If  the  plan  of  the  Supreme 
Powers  for  the  regeneration  of  Asia  must  dam  itself 
up  behind  the  barrier  of  American  political  exclusive- 
ness,  or  behind  the  bulwark  of  American  penurious- 
ness  in  supporting  schools  at  home  and  abroad,  the 
overturn  of  these  impediments  will  give  us  trouble. 
Let  us  make  no  attempt  to  place  obstacles  before  the 
gulf-current  of  history.  Let  it  have  free  course  ;  let 
it  move  out  of  the  tropics  in  time  to  come,  as  it 
has  in  time  past;  let  it  flow  to  every  coast  of  the 
globe !  Let  us  launch  our  fleets  upon  it,  and  float 
with  it.     The  Christian  world  has  now  knelt  down  to 


286  LABOR. 

pray  seven  days  for  the  free  course  of  a  gulf-current 
proceeding  from  Abraham's  time,  through  Caesar's,  to 
our  own ;  and  a  sufficient  reason  for  believing  that 
the  petitions  will  be  granted  is  that  there  is  prophecy 
that  they  shall  be,  and  that  prophecy  in  all  the  past 
has  been  fulfilled  to  the  letter.     [Applause.] 

THE  LECTURE. 

■  "When  once  we  are  convinced  that  natural  wages 
and  natural  profits  may  exist  together,  we  have 
passed  through  what  I  call  the  see-saw  swamp  in 
political  economy ;  and  on  the  firm  land  beyond  the 
marsh,  most  of  the  questions  concerning  hours  of 
labor,  co-operation,  and  industrial  partnership,  adjust 
themselves  without  State  interference. 

It  is  hardly  more  than  fifty  years  since  the  first 
fully  endowed  professorships  in  political  economy 
were  founded  in  England.  The  history  of  the  sci- 
ence dates  in  Great  Britain,  as  every  one  knows, 
from  the  publication  of  Adam  Smith's  "  Wealth  of 
Nations"  in  1776.  You  remember  that  in  Oxford 
in  1825,  Mr.  Henry  Drummond,  a  member  of  Parlia- 
ment, endowed  the  first  professorship  on  this  subject. 
A  similar  chair  was  founded  at  Cambridge  in  1828, 
but  was  not  regularly  established  by  the  university 
until  18G3,  when  Henry  Fawcett  Avas  elected  the  first 
professor.  It  should  surprise  no  one,  that  political 
economy  has  exhibited  something  of  crudeness  in  its 
youth.  As  a  branch  of  university  instruction,  it  can 
hardly  be  said  to  have  attained  maturity  as  yet,  in 
spite  of  the  labors  of  McCuUoch  and  Mill.     Arch- 


TRADES-msriONS   AND   SOCIALISM.  287 

bishop  Whately,  as  ministers  will  remember,  expressed 
his  opinion  of  the  interest  the  science  onght  to  have 
for  the  clergy,  by  himself  founding  a  professorship  of 
political  economy  at  the  University  of  Dublin.  In 
1871  a  school  of  political  science  was  founded  at 
Paris  by  Boutmy ;  and  its  graduates  are  commonly  at 
the  head  of  the  lists  of  successful  aspirants  in  the 
competitive  examinations  for  places  in  the  civil  ser- 
vice of  France. 

Young  as  it  is,  the  philosophy  of  political  science, 
as  treated  in  the  universities,  has  seen  two  or  three 
revolutions.  There  are  three  or  four  schools  of  polit- 
ical economy ;  and  it  happens  that  the  best  American 
and  German  schools  are  agreed  in  denouncing  what 
1  have  here  called  the  see-saw  theory,  and  that  only 
the  older  school  in  Great  Britain  supports  it.  The 
younger  British  school,  represented  now  by  Bonamy 
Price,  Professor  Cairnes,  and  Professor  Jevons,  do 
not  adopt  the  dismal  theory  that  the  relations  of 
capital  and  labor  are  a  see-saw,  and  that  what  one 
gains  the  other  must  lose,  and  that  the  two  must 
therefore  live  in  an  internecine  war.  These  teachers 
reject  the  theory  of  a  wages-fund. 

It  is  very  important  to  notice  that  Lasalle,  the 
father  of  modern  German  socialism,  obtained  his  im- 
pressions of  political  economy  largely  from  Malthus 
and  Ricardo,  the  leaders  of  the  dismallest  sort  of 
discussion  in  the  dismal  science.  Lasalle  used  to  say 
that  if  the  English  school  of  political  economists, 
who  had  all  the  knowledge  of  modern  times,  was 
right,  there  was  nothing  for  the  working  classes  but 


288  LABOE. 

slavery,  or  a  revolt  against  capital  as  the  natural 
enemy  of  labor.  In  Germany,  the  school  represented 
by  Sehulze-Delitzsch  founded  itself  on  the  improved 
positions  of  the  new  political  economy,  and  they  were 
American  rather  than  English.  He  founded  him- 
self largely  on  the  American  Carey  and  on  the  Ger- 
man List.  Sehulze-Delitzsch  proclaims  no  attack  on 
property.  He  escapes  the  see-saw  marsh  in  which 
Lasalle  was  choked.  He  did  much  to  cause  work- 
ing-men's savings  banks  aud  co-operative  societies  to 
be  founded  throughout  the  German  Empire.  At  this 
hour  Sehulze-Delitzsch  divides  with  Lasalle  the  hearts 
of  German  working-men.  Lasalle  represents  the  early 
mistakes,  Sehulze-Delitzsch  the  growing  maturity,  of 
political  economy. 

I  congratulate  this  audience  that  it  has  passed 
through  the  ooze  of  early  crudities  in  political  sci- 
ence, and  has  found  firm  land  on  the  other  side.  As 
we  look  back,  however,  we  see  trades-unions  up  to 
their  knees  in  the  fateful  see-saw  marsh.  Trades- 
unions  are  most  of  them  built  on  the  fallacious  theory 
that  capital  and  labor  must  of  necessity  be  at  eternal 
war,  because  they  draw  their  reward  from  the  same 
fund. 

1.  This  is  the  creed  of  most  trade-unionists:  — 

(1)  Capital  and  labor  are  in  direct  antagonism, 
because  they  divide  the  wages-fund  between  them, 
and  what  one  gains  the  other  loses. 

(2)  Capitalists  can  combine,  and  enforce  lower 
wages  than  the  state  of  the  labor-market  warrants, 
and  they  often  do  so. 


TEADES-UNIONS   AND   SOCIALISM.  289 

(3)  Laborers  therefore  must  combine,  and  resist 
coercion  by  coercion. 

(4)  Trade-unions  througbout  a  nation  should  as- 
sist each  other  by  organizing  contemporaneous  strikes, 
or  by  assisting  strikers  to  maintain  themselves  when 
not  at  work. 

(5)  Trade-unions  should  act  as  benefit-societies. 

(6)  Trade-unions  must  lay  down  and  abide  by 
certain  economic  principles,  the  chief  of  which  are :  — 

Limitation  of  the  length  of  the  day's  work. 
Abolition  of  working  by  the  piece. 
Limitation  of  apprentices. 
A  uniform  wage  to  be  given  to  all  laborers. 
Refusal,  to  work  with  non-unionists. 
(See  Professor  Bon  amy  Price,  Practical  Political 
Economy^  chap,  viii.) 

2.  It  thus  appears  that  average  trades-unions  are 
founded  on  the  mistaken  principles  of  an  outgrown 
school  in  political  economy ;  that  is,  on  the  theory 
that  the  relations  of  capital  and  labor  are  a  see-saw. 

3.  This  lie  needs  eradication  from  the  minds  of 
trades-unionists  as  well  as  capitalists. 

4.  Trades-unions  are  mischievous  so  far  as  they 
tyrannize  over  employers  and  non-unionist  working- 
men. 

5.  They  are  useful  so  far  as  they  inspirit  laborers 
to  self-help,  and  take  the  shape  of  benefit-societies. 

6.  Trades-unions  are  now  nearly  omnipresent  in 
England  and  the  United  States  in  all  the  great 
branches  of  industry. 

7.  They  tend  to  become  national. 


290  LABOR. 

8.  They  tend  to  become  international. 

9.  They  tend,  under  universal  suffrage,  to  become 
political. 

10.  Many  of  the  objects  of  trades-unions  are  iden- 
tical with  the  objects  ought  by  socialistic  political 
parties. 

11.  When  the  members  of  trades-unions  and  the 
members  of  socialistic  political  parties  have  the  same 
political  objects,  their  political  alliance  is  natural. 

12.  Under  universal  sufirage,  it  is  likely  to  be  for- 
midable. 

Among  the  trades-unions  in  England  and  Wales 
there  are  32,000  friendly  societies,  with  4,000,000 
members,  and  more  than  $55,000,000  accumulated 
funds.  These  societies  save  to  the  poor-fund  $10,- 
000,000  a  year.  (^Fourth  Report  of  Parliamentary 
Commission  of  Inquiry  on  Trades-  Unions,  1874.) 

Nobody,  in  America  at  least,  pretends  to  complain 
when'  working-men  combine  for  the  fair  and  just 
protection  of  their  own  interests.  Capitalists  may 
combine  to  protect  their  own  interests,  and  so,  of 
course,  may  working-men. 

The  notorious  evil  in  trades-unions,  however,  is 
the  tyranny  frequently  exercised  by  their  members 
over  non-unionist  working-men.  Open  the  regula- 
tions of  some  of  the  trades-unions  in  Great  Britain, 
and  you  will  find  them  prohibiting  the  employment 
of  one's  own  brother  or  son,  unless  he  is  in  a  trades 
society.  The  mason  who  is  called  to  do  a  job,  and 
finds  he  needs  a  carpenter,  must  not  so  much  as  saw 
off  one  plank,  but  must  wait  for  the  carpenter  to  be 


TEADES-UNIONS   AND   SOCIALISM.  291 

summoned  to  do  the  work.  If  the  carpenter  finds  a 
brick  in  the  way  of  his  saw,  he  must  wait  until  the 
mason  changes  the  place  of  the  impediment.  You 
must  never  act  as  your  own  assistant.  I  do  not  say 
that  a  majority  of  British  trades-unions  enforce  these 
rules ;  but  some  of  them  do,  and  they  are  character- 
istic of  the  system.  In  Leeds  the  rule  is  that  you 
must  not  carry  more  than  eight  bricks  in  a  hod. 
You  may  carry  ten  in  London,  and  twelve  in  Liver- 
pool. If  trades-unions  wish  to  bring  themselves  into 
universal  contempt,  let  them  go  on  legislating  against 
their  fellow-workingmen  who  are  non-unionists. 
Some  years  ago  a  cartoon  in  Punch  represented  a 
British  working-man  in  his  hovel,  without  work  dur- 
ing a  strike,  and  his  wife  cowering  over  an  empty 
grate,  while  a  well-dressed  officer  of  a  working-men's 
trades-union  was  berating  the  husband  for  his  inten- 
tion to  go  to  work :  "  You  mean  to  work,  do  you  ? 
You  mean  to  give  in,  do  you?  Not  if  I  know  it.'' 
There  is  no  form  of  tyranny  worse  than  unionists 
have  sometimes  exercised  over  non-unionist  working- 
men.  Mr.  Gladstone,  discussing  this  topic  once,  and 
defending  the  right  of  four  men  who  had  been  per- 
secuted because  they  were  non-unionist  laborers,  said, 
"If  Great  Britain  has  become  a  place  where  the 
majority  can  oppress  the  minority  in  this  way,  it 
has  come  to  be  a  place  of  which  I  should  say  that 
the  sooner  we  get  out  of  it,  the  better,"  In  re- 
gard to  the  United  States,  under  a  suffrage  wider 
than  that  of  Great  Britain,  we  may  say  with  more 
emphasis  than  Gladstone's,  that  if  trades-unions  ob- 


292  LABOR. 

tain  the  political  power  they  are  seeking,  and  act  as 
they  usually  have  done  when  able  to  have  their  own 
way,  the  United  States  will  soon  be  such  a  place  that 
the  sooner  we  get  out  of  it  the  better.  [Applause.] 
A  New  York  citizen,  who  wanted  papering  done  in 
his  house,  ordered  it  of  a  society-man,  as  he  was 
called ;  and  the  bill  brought  in  was  ten  dollars  a  day. 
"  Well,  but  your  work  is  not  worth  this,"  said  the 
employer.  "  Yes,  but  you  cannot  get  anybody  to  do 
it  for  less.  I  belong  to  a  trades-union,  and  we  have 
all  agreed  to  ask  a  certain  price.  You  will  find  on 
investigation  that  I  am  asking  you  what  any  one  else 
will."  This  case  of  shameless  extortion  is  t}'pical  of 
whole  ranges  of  facts  that  I  might  put  before  you. 
While  I  denounce  these  evils  of  trade-unions,  how- 
ever, I  must  not  be  understood  as  denying  the  right 
of  working-men  to  combine. 

May  working-men  combine  in  a  strike?  That  is  a 
very  rude  measure,  and  usually  does  more  harm  than 
good,  but  it  is  the  chief  weapon  of  trades-unions. 
You  say  that  strikes  do  not  generally  succeed ;  but 
make  a  distinction.  On  a  rising  market  strikes  often 
succeed  ;  on  a  falling  they  usually  fail.  Half  the  time 
working-men  do  not  know  when  to  strike.  If  the 
prices  of  goods  are  rising,  and  working-men  strike, 
manufacturers,  of  course,  cannot  afford  to  shut  their 
mills.  But  if  men  strike  on  a  falling  market,  capital 
can  I'old  its  arms,  and  say,  "  We  can  make  more 
money  by  shutting  our  mills  than  by  keeping  them 
open,"  and  sometimes  profitably  answer  the  strike  by 
a  lockout.     Capital  does  not  starve  by  waiting,  but 


TRADES-UNIONS  AND   SOCIALISM.  293 

labor  ma3\  Capital  does  not  diminish  by  waiting. 
Time  unsold  cannot  be  brought  to  market  a  second 
time.  It  perishes  in  postponement.  ]\Ir.  Thornton, 
in  his  elaborate  book  on  "Labor,"  defends  the 
opinion  that  in  Great  Britain  the  majority  of  strikes, 
both  on  a  rising  and  on  a  falling  market,  have  suc- 
ceeded. Certain  it  is,  that  the  average  of  wages  in 
trades  where  strikes  are  frequent  has  been  raised  in 
the  last  fifty  years,  if  not  by  strikes,  then  by  the  fear 
of  them.  Very  often  when  manufacturers  do  not 
yield  at  the  time  of  a  strike  they  raise  wages  after- 
wards. Strikes  have  probably  succeeded  in  the 
majority  of  cases  on  a  rising  market,  and  yet  they 
are  the  most  barbaric  of  all  the  weapons  that  labor 
employs. 

Are  trades-unions  a  nursery  of  socialism  ? 

Go  to  Chicago,  go  to  the  door  of  Tremont  Tem- 
ple, and  you  may  purchase  socialistic  newspapers  of 
a  type  of  which  this  is  a  specimen  [holding  up  a 
newspaper].  In  this  official  socialistic  sheet,  nearly 
half  a  page  is  taken  up  with  a  trades-union  directory : 
"Amalgamated  Carpenters  and  Joiners,"  "Brother- 
hood of  Loeomotive  Engineers,"  "Miners'  National 
Association,"  "  Brotherhood  of  Locomotive  Fire- 
men,"—  these  are  a  few  out  of  scores  of  titles  re- 
printed every  week  in  this  publication. 

I  turn  to  the  official  announcement  of  the  object 
of  the  paper,  and  find  that :  "  '  The  Socialist '  will  re- 
cord the  proceedings  of  all  trades-unions,  especially 
of  amalgamated  and  centralized  unions,  whenever 
sent  us.     We  shall  discuss  all  the  various  phases  of 


294  LABOR. 

the  labor  movement.  We  expect  all  unions  and 
sections,  as  well  as  individual  members,  throughout 
the  country,  to  promptly  send  us  reports  and  items 
upon  all  matters  of  importance  to  the  labor  cause." 

What  is  the  socialistic  platform  ?  In  this  country 
it  is  somewhat  altered  in  shape  from  the  form  it  has 
in  the  Old  World,  but  here  is  the  platform  which  this 
paper  prints  in  connection  with  these  lists  of  trades- 
unions:  "We  demand  that  the  resources  of  life  — 
the  means  of  production,  public  transportation  and 
communication  (land,  machinery,  railroads,  telegraph- 
lines,  canals,  &c.,)  —  become,  as  fast  as  practicable, 
the  common  property  of  the  whole  people  through 
the  government ;  thus  to  abolish  the  wages-system, 
and  substitute  in  its  stead  co-operative  production, 
with  a  just  distribution  of  its  rewards."    [Applause.] 

Why  have  I  demanded  education  for  working- 
men  ?  Why  have  I  insisted,  as  if  on  a  question  of 
life  or  death,  on  the  rights  of  factory-children  ?  Why 
have  I  been  taking  your  time  by  giving  reasons  for 
the  execution  of  the  school-laws  which  provide  for 
compulsory  education  ?  Because,  if  trades-unions  are 
filled  with  an  ignorant  set  of  workuig-men,  social- 
istic doctrines  will  take  root  in  that  soil.  The  results 
of  socialism  in  the  United  States,  were  it  to  spread 
here,  would  be  more  disastrous  than  in  Germany, 
simply  because  popular  suffrage  on  the  Hudson  and 
the  Mississippi  has  more  power  than  on  the  Elbe 
and  the  Oder.  The  truth  is  that  trades-unions,  all 
over  the  United  States,  are  seeking  political  power, 
and  are  tlierefore  likely  to  be  frequently  under  temp- 


TRADES-UNIONS   AND   SOCIALISM.  295 

tation  to  form  alliance  with  socialistic  labor  parties. 
American  trades-unions  are  now  not  socialistic ;  but 
let  an  ignorant,  hereditary  operative  class  come  into 
existence  here,  and  they  may  easily  fall  a  prey  to 
socialistic  demagogues.  Once  give  socialists  in  the 
United  States  a  majority  of  votes,  and  you  will 
speedily  learn  the  distinction  between  voluntary  and 
compulsory  socialism.  An  unforced  agreement  of 
men  to  go  into  a  socialistic  community  is  one  thing : 
compulsory  socialism  is  another.  Under  universal 
suifrage,  with  political  primacy  once  grasped  by  the 
hands  of  working-men,  who  are  seventy  or  eighty  out 
of  every  hundred  of  voters,  there  may  come  a  time 
when  socialism,  instead  of  being  voluntary,  will  be 
compulsor}^,  and  nationalization  of  the  lands,  the 
railroads,  the  canals,  the  telegraphs,  be  forced  upon 
you  by  the  suffrage  of  an  ignorant  population.  Com- 
pulsory socialism  is  the  chief  danger  in  the  future  of 
universal  suffrage  ;  and  from  that  peril,  which  means 
nothing  less  than  spoliation  and  anarchy,  may  God 
and  discussion  in  the  Church  and  State  save  us! 
[Applause.] 


BOSTON  MONDAY  LECTURES. 

By  JOSEPH  COOK. 


The  Boston  Monday  Lectures  are  now  included  in  the  following 
eight  works :  — 

Vol.  1.  —  Biology,  with  Preludes  on  Current  Events.    (IGth  edition.) 

Vol.  2.— Transcendentalism,  with  Preludes  on  Current  EVents. 
(13th  edition.) 

Vol.  3.  —  Orthodoxy,  with  Preludes  on  Current  Events.    (7th  edi- 
tion.) 

Vol.  4.  —  Conscience,  with  Preludes  on  Current  Events. 

Vol.  5.  — Heredity,  with  Preludes  on  Current  Events. 

Vol.  6. —Marriage,  with  Preludes  on  Current  Events. 

Vol.  7.  —  Labor,  with  Preludes  on  Current  Events. 

Vol.  8.  —  Socialism,  with  Preludes  on  Current  Events. 

K^~  Price  of  each  volume,  $1.50.    For  sale  by  all  Booksellers.    Sent, 
post-paid,  on  receipt  of  price  by  the  Publishers, 

HOUGHTON,  OSGOOD  &  CO.,  Boston. 


/.     AMERICAN  OPINIONS. 


The  Bibliotheca  Sacra  for  January,  1880. 

The  Boston  Monday  Lectureship  is  now  in  its  fifth  year.  One 
liundred  and  thirty-five  lectures  on  abstruse  and  difficult  topics 
have  been  delivered  to  noon  audiences  of  extraordinary  size,  and 
containing  sometimes  two  hundred  ministers,  with  large  numbers 
of  teachers  and  other  educated  men.  Each  lecture  has  been  pre- 
ceded by  a  short  address,  called  a  Prelude  on  Current  Events,  and 
discussing  some  topic  of  urgent  political  or  religious  importance, 
like  civil  service  reform,  temperance,  fraud  in  elections,  Mormonism, 
the  Chinese  question,  the  Bible  in  schools,  the  Indian  question,  or 
the  negro  exodus.  In  revising  the  stenographic  reports,  both  the 
lecture  and  the  prelixle  are  usually  somewhat  expanded  by  their 
author,  so  that  a  prelude  in  print  is  often  more  than  thirty  minutes 
in  length.  The  lecturer  has  thus  treated  two  important  topics  on 
each  occasion ;  and  the  contrast  of  the  practical  matter  of  the  prel- 
ude with  the  more  speculative  and  scientific  substance  of  the  lec- 
ture, has  assisted  in  fixing  public  attention  upon  both.  Mr.  Cook 
has  been  the  first  speaker  to  employ  preludes  in  this  contrast  with 
theological  and  metaphysical  lectures. 

Great  pains  have  been  taken  to  secure  the  fullest  information  for 
the  preludes  from  official  sources  at  Washington  and  elsewhere. 
The  committee  in  charge  of  the  Boston  ;Monday  Lectureship  em- 
braces thirty-six  members,  of  whom  twelve  are  an  Executive  Board, 
representing  different  evangelical  denominations  in  Boston,  and 
twenty-four  are  scattered  through  the  country  all  the  way  to  Call- 


BOSTON  MONDAY  LECTURES. 


fomia.  "Written  permission  to  add  their  names  to  the  committee 
has  been  given  by  such  men  as  President  McCosh  of  Princeton  Col- 
lege, Professor  Hitchcock  of  New  York,  Dr.  Storrs  of  Brooklyn, 
Bishop  Huntington  of  Syracuse,  Professor  Mead  of  Oberlin  College, 
Professor  Curtiss  of  Chicago  Theological  Seminary,  Dr.  Post  of  St. 
Louis,  and  Drs.  Gibson  and  Stone  of  San  Francisco.  It  will  readily 
be  seen  that  consultation  from  time  to  time  by  letter  with  so  large 
and  distinguishetl  a  committee,  and  with  other  public  men  with 
whom  the  lecturer  forms  acquaintance  in  his  extensive  travel, 
together  with  the  opportunity  of  wide  personal  observation,  makes 
the  pjeludes  an  important  source  of  suggestions  as  to  current  reform, 
and  a  most  useful  means  of  discussing  popular  evils  as  they  arise. 
The  independence  of  the  platform  adds  to  the  effect  of  its  treatment 
of  living  issues.  It  is  noticeable,  that,  in  both  the  Scotch  and  Eng- 
lish repul)lications  of  Mr.  Cook's  volumes,  tlie  preludes  are  included 
in  full.  It  is  believed  that  no  leading  articles  in  any  newspaper  in 
England  or  America  are  so  extensively  copied  by  the  jircss  as  the 
preludes  of  the  Boston  Monday  Lectureship.  Each  one  is  intended 
to  be  a  compact  prose  sonnet,  discussing  current  events  from  the 
religious  point  of  view. 

The  thirty  lectures  delivered  in  the  second  year  of  the  lectureship, 
which  was  founded  in  1875,  are  comprised  in  the  three  volumes 
entitled  "  Biology-,"  "  Transcendentalism,"  and  "  Orthodoxy."  The 
results  of  the  third  year  of  the  lectureship  are  embraced  iii  the  vol- 
umes entitled  "  Conscience,"  "  Heredity,"  and  "  Marriage."  Those 
of  the  fourth  year  are  summarized  in  the  books  called  "  Labor  "  and 
"  Socialism,"  now  in  press.  It  is  understood  that  the  present  series 
of  lectures  will  make  two  more  volumes,  to  be  entitled  "  Culture  " 
and  "  Miracles." 

During  the  third  year  of  the  lectureship,  Mr.  Cook  gave  six  lec- 
tures in  New  York  City,  besides  sjieaking  in  most  of  the  prominent 
cities  of  the  North-eastern  States.  In  the  sea.son  of  1878  and  1879, 
he  conducted  a  Boston  Monday-noon  Lectureship  and  a  New  York 
Thursdaj'-evening  I/ccturesliip  at  the  same  time.  In  his  course  of 
the  preceding  year  in  New  Y'ork  City,  he  had  been  introduce<l  by 
presiding  ofhcers  like  Professor  Hitchcock,  Dr.  William  Adams, 
Professor  Schaflf,  and  William  Cullen  Bryant,  and  the  audiences 
were  extraordinarily  large.  On  the  closing  evening  of  his  second 
course  in  New  York,  some  two  hundred  p<iople  were  turned  away, 
unable  to  tiiid  staiiding-room,  and  the  money  for  their  ti<;ket;i  was 
refunded.  In  the  spring  and  summer  succeeding  the  last  full  course 
of  the  lectureship,  he  visite<l  California,  an<l  performed  a  service  at 
the  dedication  of  a  chapel  in  the  Yo.semite  Valley.  He  studied  and 
discussed  Mormonism  in  Salt  Lake  City,  and  the  Chinese  <]uestion 
in  California. 

In  the  year  ending  July  4,  1878,  Mr.  Cook  delivered  one  hundred 
and  fifty  lectures;  sixty  in  th»East,  t<!n  of  them  in  New  York  t^ity, 
and  sixty  in  tlm  West;  bejMdes  tliirfy  new  lectures  in  Boston,  whirh 
were  pulilislieil  In  that  city.  New  York,  and  Ixuidon;  i.Hsued  tlirre 
volumes,  one  of  wliich  is  now  in  it.s  sixteenth  and  another  in  its 
thirteenth  edition;  and  travelled,  on  his  lecturo-trips,  ten  thousand 
five  hnn«lre<l  mil(!S. 

In  the  year  ending  July  4,  1879,  he  delivere<l  one  hundred  and 
sixty  ltK;ture8;  seventy-two  in  the  East,  twenty  of  thorn  in  Boston 
and  U'W  in  New  York,  seventy  in  tlie  West,  five  in  Canada,  two  in 
Utah,  and  cluvuu  in  Culiiuruia,  uf  which  flve  were  in  San  Francisco. 


BOSTON  MONDAY  LECTURES. 


He  twice  crossed  the  continent  in  the  last  four  months  of  the  season, 
and  in  the  last  nine  months  has  travelled,  on  his  lecture-trijjs, 
twelve  thousand  five  hundred  miles.  In  the  former  of  these  seasons 
he  addressed  large  audiences  in  sixteen,  and  in  the  latter  in  seven- 
teen, college  towns. 

It  is  worth  noting  that  Mr.  Cook  has  no  church  nor  parish  work 
on  his  hands,  although  he  not  infrequently  speaks  in  a  church  on 
Sundays.  Living  opposite  the  Boston  Athenseum  Library,  and 
using  it  as  much  as  though  it  were  his  own,  the  lecturer  has  found 
time,  outside  of  all  his  other  work,  to  carry  through  the  press,  in 
three  years,  the  eight  volumes  of  Monday  Lectures,  issued  by 
Houghton,  Osgood,  &  Co. 

Mr.  Cook  had  a  previous  preparation  of  at  least  ten  years'  study, 
at  home  and  abroad,  for  the  discussion  of  the  relations  of  Chris- 
tianity to  the  sciences. 

"  The  New  York  Independent  "  owns  the  copyright  of  the  present 
series  of  lectures,  and  sells  the  right  of  rcDublication  to  other  papers. 
There  are  now  published,  and  have  been  for  the  last  two  years,  over 
one  hundred  thousand  newspaper  copies  of  the  Boston  Monday 
Lectures  and  preludes  in  full,  and  over  three  hundred  thousand 
cojiies  of  the  preludes  and  parts  of  the  lectures.  The  Committee  of 
the  Boston  ^londay  Lectureship  reported  in  March  last,  that,  at  a 
moderate  estimate,  more  than  a  million  readers  in  the  United  States 
and  Great  Britain  are  reached  weekly. 

In  September,  1880,  Mr.  Cook  intends  to  suspend  his  American 
lectures  for  a  year,  at  least,  and  to  seek  opportunity  for  rest  and 
study  in  England  and  Germany. 

President  James  McCosh,  Princeton  College,  in  the  Catholic  Presbyte- 
rian for  September,  187C. 
What  influence  I  may  have  had  on  Mr.  Cook,  I  do  not  know;  but 
I  am  pleased  to  notice  that  on  intuition  and  several  other  subjects, 
he  is  promulgating  to  thousands  the  same  views  I  had  been  thinking 
out  in  my  study,  and  i:)ropounding  to  my  students,  in  Belfast  and 
in  Princeton.  From  scattered  notices,  I  gather  that  he  was  born  (in 
I808)  and  reared,  and  still  lives  in  his  leisure  days,  in  that  region  in 
which  the  loveliest  of  American  lakes,  Lake  Champlain  and  Lake 
George,  lie  embosomed  among  magnificent  mountains.  He  was 
trained  for  college  at  Phillips  Academy,  under  the  great  classical 
teacher,  Dr.  Taylor  ;  was  two  years  at  Yale  College,  and  two  years 
at  Harvard,  graduating  at  the  latter  in  18(>5,  first  in  philosophy  and 
rhetoric  of  his  class.  He  then  joined  Andover  Theological  Semi- 
nary, went  through  the  regular  three-years'  course  there,  and  lin- 
gered a  year  longer  at  that  place,  pondering  deeply  the  relations  of 
science  and  religion,  which  continued  to  be  the  theme  of  his  thoughts 
and  his  study  for  the  next  ten  years.  At  this  stage  he  received 
much  impulse  from  Professor  Park,  who  requires  every  student  to 
reason  out  and  to  defend  his  opinions;  and  many  sound  philosophic 
princijiles  from  Sir  William  Hamilton  and  other  less  eminent  men 
of  th«i  Scottish  school.  He  spoke  from  time  to  time  at  religious 
meetings,  and  was  for  one  year  the  pastor  of  a  Congregational 
church,  but  never  sought  a  settlement.  In  September,  1871,  ho  went 
abroad,  and  studied  for  two  years,  vinder  special  directions  from 
Tholuck,  at  Halle,  Berlin,  and  Heidelberg  ;  and  received  a  mighty 
influence  from  Julitis  Muller  of  Halle,  Dorner  of  Berlin,  Kuno 
Fischer  of  Heidelberg,  and  Hermann  Lotze  of  Gottingen.    He  then 


BOSTON  MONDAY  LECTURES. 


travelled  for  a  time  in  Italy,  Egypt,  Syria,  Greece,  Turkey,  Switzer- 
land, France,  England,  and  Scotland.  Returning  to  the  United 
States  in  1873,  he  took  up  his  residence  in  Boston,  and  became  a 
lecturer  in  New  England  on  the  subject  to  which  his  studies  had 
been  so  long  directed,  the  relations  of  religion  and  science.  For  a 
time  he  lectured  at  Amherst  College;  and,  while  doing  so,  Jie  was 
invited  to  conduct  noon  meetings  in  Boston. 

Mr.  Cook  did  not  take  up  the  work  he  has  accomplished,  as  a 
trade,  or  by  accident,  or  from  impulse ;  but  for  years  he  had  been 
preparing  for  it,  and  prepared  for  it  by  an  overruling  guidance.  I 
regard  Joseph  Cook  as  a  Heaven-ordained  man.  Ho  comes  at  the 
lit  time;  that  is,  at  the  time  he  is  needed.  He  comes  forth  in  Bos- 
ton, which  is  undoubtedly  the  most  literary  city  in  America,  and 
one  of  the  great  literary  cities  of  the  world.  I  am  not  sure  that 
even  Edinburgh  can  match  it,  now  that  London  is  drawing  towards 
it  and  gathering  up  the  intellectual  youth  of  Scotland.  It  has  a 
character  of  its  own  in  several  respects.  I  have  here  to  speak  only 
of  its  religious  character.  Half  a  century  ago  its  Orthoiioxy  had  sunk 
into  Unitarianism  —  a  re-action  against  a  formal  Puritanism  —  led  by 
Channing,  who  adorned  his  bald  sj-stera  by  his  high  personal  char- 
acter and  the  eloquence  of  his  style.  People  could  not  long  l)e  satis- 
fied by  a  negation,  and  Parkerism  followed  ;  and  a  convulsive  life 
was  thrown  into  the  skeleton  of  natural  religion  by  an  a  priori 
speculation,  derived  from  the  pretentious  philosophies  of  Germany, 
in  which  the  Absolute  took  the  place  of  God,  and  untested  intuition 
the  place  of  the  Bible.  The  movement  culminated  in  Ralph  Waldo 
Emerson,  a  feebler  but  a  more  lovable  Thomas  Carlyle,  —  the  one 
coming  out  of  a  decaying  Puritanism,  the  other  out  of  a  decaying 
Covenanterism.  But  those  who  would  mount  to  heaven  in  a  balloon 
have  sooner  or  later  to  come  down  to  earth.  Tlie  young  men  of 
Uar\'ard  College,  led  by  their  able  president,  have  more  taste  for 
the  new  physical  science,  with  its  developments,  than  for  a  visionary 
metaphysics.  As  I  remarked  some  time  ago  in  a  literary  organ, 
Unitarianism  has  died,  and  is  laid  out  for  decent  burial.  Mean- 
while there  is  a  marked  revival  of  Evangelism,  and  the  Congrega- 
tional and  Episcopal  churches  have  as  much  thoughtfulness  and 
culture  as  the  Unitarians.  Harvard  now  cares  an  little  for  Unita- 
rianism as  it  does  for  Evangelism  —  simply  taking  care  that  Ortho- 
doxy does  not  rule  over  its  teaching.  But  the  question  arises.  What 
are  our  young  men  to  believe  in  these  days  when  Darwinism  and 
Spencerism  and  Evolutionism  are  taught  in  our  journals,  in  our 
schools,  and  in  our  colleges?  To  my  knowledge,  this  question  is  as 
anxiously  put  l)y  Unitarian  parents  of  the  old  school,  who  cling 
firmly  to  the  great  truths  of  natural  religion,  and  to  the  Bible  aa  a 
•  tea<;her  of  morality,  as  it  is  by  the  Orthodox. 

Such  was  the  state  of  thought  and  feeling,  of  Iwlief  and  unl>olief, 
of  apprehension  and  of  desire,  when  Jasepli  Cook  came  to  Boston 
witliout  any  flourish  of  trumi>eta  preceding  him.  Numljcrs  were 
prepared  to  welcome  him  as  soon  as  they  knew  what  the  man  was, 
ami  what  he  was  aiming  at.  Ortho«lox  ministers,  not  very  well  able 
themselves  to  wn^stle  with  the  new  fonns  of  inrtdelity,  rejoiced  in 
tlie  appearance  of  one  who  ha<l  as  much  ixiwer  of  olofpience  as 
Parker,  and  vastly  more  acquaintance  witn  philosojihy  than  the 
mystic  Emerson,  and  who  seemed  to  know  what  truth  and  what 
error  there  are  in  these  doctrines  of  development  and  heredity.  Tho 
best  of  the  Unitarians,  not  knowing  whither  their  sous  were  drifting, 


BOSTON  MONDAY  LECTURES. 


were  pleased  to  find  one  who  conld  keep  them  from  open  infidelity. 
Young  men,  tired  of  old  rationalism,  which  they  saw  to  be  very  irra^ 
tional,  delighted  to  listen  to  one  who  evidently  spoke  boldly  and 
sincerely,  and  could  talk  to  them  of  these  theories  about  evolution 
and  the  origin  of  species  and  the  nature  of  man.  The  consequence 
Avas,  his  audiences  increased  from  year  to  year.  He  first  lectured  in 
the  JNIeionaon  in  1875.  The  attendance  at  noon  on  Mondays  was  so 
large  that  his  meetings  had  to  be  transferred  to  Park-street  Church 
in  October,  187G  ;  and  finally,  in  1870-77,  in  1877-78  and  1879,  to  the 
enormous  Tremont  Temple,  which  is  often  crowded  to  excess.  In 
the  audience  there  were  at  times  two  hundred  ministers,  many 
teachers,  and  other  educated  persons.  His  lectures,  in  whole  or  in 
abstract,  appeared  in  leading  newspapers,  and  his  fame  spread  over 
all  America  ;  and,  continuing  his  Monday  addresses  in  Boston,  he 
was  invited,  on  the  other  days  of  the  week,  to  lecture  all  over  the 
country.  He  now  lectures  in  the  principal  cities  from  the  Atlantic 
to  the  Pacific,  always  drawing  a  large  and  approving  audience. 

Some  scientific  sciolists  have  thrown  out  doubts  as  to  the  accuracy 
of  his  knowledge,  but  have  not  been  able  to  detect  him  in  any  mis- 
statement of  fact.  He  lightens  and  thunders,  throwing  a  vivid  light 
on  a  topic  by  an  expression  or  comparison,  or  striking  a  presumptu- 
ous error  as  by  a  bolt  from  heaven.  He  is  not  afraid  to  discuss  the 
most  abstract,  scientific,  or  philosophic  themes  before  a  popular  au- 
dience; he  arrests  his  hearers  first  by  his  earnestness,  then  by  the 
clearness  of  his  exposition,  and  fixes  the  whole  in  the  mind  by  the 
earnestness  of  his  moral  purpose. 

Rev.  Professor  A.  P.  Peahody,  of  Harvard  University,  in  the 
Independent. 

Joseph  Cook  is  a  phenomenon  to  be  accounted  for.  No  other 
American  orator  has  done  what  he  has  done,  or  any  thing  like  it; 
and,  prior  to  the  experiment,  no  voice  would  have  been  bold  enough 
to  predict  its  success. 

We  reviewed  Mr.  Cook's  "Lectures  on  Biology"  with  unquali- 
fied praise.  In  the  present  A'olume  we  find  tokens  of  the  same 
genius,  the  same  intensity  of  feeling,  the  same  lightning  Hashes  of 
impassioned  eloquence,  the  same  vise-like  hold  on  the  rapt  attention 
and  absorbing  interest  of  his  hearers  and  readers.  We  are  sure  that 
we  are  unbiased  by  the  change  of  subject;  for,  though  we  dissent 
from  some  of  the  dogmas  which  the  author  recognizes  in  passing, 
there  is  hardly  one  of  his  consecutive  trains  of  thought  in  which  we 
are  not  in  harmony  with  hi^i,  or  one  of  his  skirmishes  in  which  our 
sympathies  are  not  wholly  on  his  side. 

Rev.  Dr.  Thomas  Hill,  Ex-President  of  Harvard  University,  in  the 
Christian  Register. 
These  lectures  are  crowded  so  full  of  knowledge,  of  thought,  of 
argument,  illumined  with  such  passages  of  eloquence  and  power. 
Sluiced  so  frequently  with  deep-cutting  though  good-natured  irony, 
that  I  could  make  no  abstract  from  them  without  utterly  mutilat- 
ing them. 

Professor  Francis  Bowen,  Harvard  Univer.^ity. 
I  do  not  know  of  any  work  on  conscience  in  which  the  true 
theory  of  ethics  is  so  clearly  and  forcibly  presented,  together  with 
the  logical  inferences  from  it  in  support  of  the  great  truths  of  re- 
ligion. 


BOSTON  MONDAY  LECTURES. 


The  Princeton  Review. 

Mr.  Cook  has  already  become  famous;  and  these  lectures  are 
among  the  chief  works  that  have,  and  we  may  say  justly,  made  him 
so.  Their  celebrity  is  due  partly  to  the  place  and  circumstances  of 
their  delivery,  but  still  more  to  their  inherent  power,  without  which 
no  adventitious  aids  could  have  lifted  them  into  the  (lescrved  jiroiiii- 
nence  they  have  attained.  .  .  .  Mr.  Cook  is  a  great  master  of  analy- 
sis. .  .  .  The  lecture  on  the  Atonement  is  generally  just,  able,  aiid 
unanswerable.  .  .  .  We  think,  on  the  whole,  that  Mr.  Cook  shows 
singular  justness  of  ^^ew  in  his  manner  of  treating  the  most  diffi- 
cult and  perplexing  themes;  for  example,  God  in  natural  law,  and 
the  Trinity. 

Boston  Daily  Advertiser. 

At  high  noon  on  Monday,  Tremont  Temple  was  packed  to  suffo- 
cation and  overflowing,  although  five  thousand  i>eople  were  in  the 
Tal)ernacle  at  the  same  hour.  The  Temple  audience  consisted 
chiefly  of  men,  and  was  of  distinguished  quality,  containing  hun- 
dreds of  persons  well  known  in  the  learned  professions.  Wendell 
Phillips,  Edward  Everett  Hale,  Bronson  Alcott,  and  many  other 
citizens  of  eminence,  sat  on  the  platform.  No  Injtter  proof  than  the 
character  of  the  audience  could  have  l)een  desired  to  show  that  Mr. 
Cook's  popularity  as  a  lecturer  is  not  confined  to  the  evangelical 
denominations.    (Feb.  7.) 

It  is  not  often  that  Boston  people  honor  a  public  lecturer  so  much 
as  to  crowd  to  hear  him  at  the  noon-tide  of  a  week-day;  and,  when 
it  does  this  month  after  month,  the  fact  is  proof  positive  tliat  his 
subject  is  one  of  engrossing  interest.  Mr.  Cook,  perhaps  more  than 
any  gentleman  in  the  lecture-field  the  past  few  years,  has  been  so 
honored.    (Feb.  14.) 

The  Independent. 

We  know  of  no  man  that  is  doing  more  to-day  to  sliow  tlio  rea- 
sonableness of  Christianity,  and  the  unreasonableness  of  unboliof ; 
nor  do  we  know  of  any  one  who  is  doing  it  with  such  admirable 
tolerance  yet  dramatic  intensity. 

Professor  Borden  P.  Bowne,  of  Boston  University,  in  the  Sunday 
Afternoon. 
In  the  chapters  on  the  theories  of  life,  these  discussions  are,  in 
many  respects,  models  of  argument;  and  the  descriptions  of  tlio 
farts  under  discussion  are  often  unrivalled  for  both  scientific  exact- 
ness and  rlietorical  adequacy  of  lanpiage.  In  the  present  state  of 
the  debate  there  is  no  better  nianualof  tlie  argument  than  the  work 
in  hand.  The  emptiness  of  the  mechanical  explanation  of  life  was 
never  more  clearly  shown. 

T/ie  Bibliotheca  Sacra. 
Then*  is  no  other  work  on  biology,  there  is  no  other  work  on  the- 
'^'"Ky.  with  which  this  volume  of  lectures  can  well  be  comi)nre<l:  it 
is  u  i>o<)k  that  no  biolopist,  whether  an  originator  or  a  mere  luiddle- 
triiin  in  Kciencc,  would  ever  have  written.  Traversing  a  very  wide 
field,  cutting  right  acro.ss  the  territories  of  rival  six-cialists,  it  <'on- 
t.iins  not  one  imiHirtant  scientific  misstatement,  either  of  tact  or 
theory.  Nf)t  only  tlie  pro|>ositions,  but  the  datejt,  the  references,  the 
names,  and  the  histories  of  scientific  discoveries  and  speculations, 
are  pn-seiited  as  they  are  found  in  the  soun-cs  whence  they  are 
taken,  or,  at  least,  with  only  verlml  and  minor  changes. 


BOSTON  MONDAY  LECTURES. 


The  Eclectic  Magazine. 
It  may  be  said  unqualifiedly  that  the  pulpit  has  never  brought 
such  comprehensiveness  and  precision  of  knowledge,  combined  with 
such  loj^ical  and  literary  skill,  to  the  discussion  of  the  questions 
raised  by  the  supposed  tendency  of  biological  discovery. 

The  Advance,  Chicago. 
This  Boston  Lectureship  is  altogether  unique  in  the  recent  history 
of  poiiular  exposition  of  abstruse  themes.    One  has  to  go  back  to  the 
time  of  Peter  Abelard,  of  the  University  of  Paris,  for  a  parallel  to  it. 


II.     FOREIGN  OPINIONS. 


Rev.  R.  Payne  Smith,  Dean  of  Canterbury. 

The  lectures  are  remarkably  eloquent,  vigorous,  and  powerful, 
and  no  one  could  read  them  without  great  benefit.  They  deal  with 
very  important  questions,  and  are  a  valuable  contribution  towards 
solving  many  of  the  difficulties  which  at  this  time  trouble  many 
minds. 

Rev.  Dr.  Angus,  the  College,  Regent's  Park. 

These  lectures  discuss  some  of  the  most  vital  questions  of  the- 
ology, and  examine  the  views  or  writings  of  Emerson,  Theodore 
Parker,  and  others.  They  are  creating  a  great  sensation  in  Boston, 
where  they  have  been  delivered,  and  are  wonderful  specimens  of 
shrewd,  clear,  and  vigorous  thinking.  They  are  moreover,  largely 
illustrative,  and  have  a  fine  vein  of  poetry  running  through  them. 
The  lectures  on  the  Trinity*  are  capitally  written;  and,  though  we 
are  not  prepared  to  accept  all  Mr.  Cook's  statements,  the  lectures, 
as  a  whole,  are  admirable.  A  dozen  such  lectures  have  not  been 
published  for  many  a  day. 

Rev.  Alexander  Raleigh,  D.D.,  of  London. 
The  lectures  are  in  every  way  of  a  high  order.    They  are  pro- 
found and  yet  clear,  extremely  forcible  in  some  of  their  parts,  yet, 
I  think,  always  fair,  and  as  full  of  sympathy  with  what  is  properly 
and  purely  human  as  of  reverence  for  what  is  undoubtedly  divine. 

Rev.  John  Ker,  D.D.,  of  Glasgow. 
My  conviction  is,  that  they  are  specially  fitted  for  the  time,  and 
likely  above  all  to  be  useful  to  thoughtful  minds  engaged  in  seeking 
a  footing  amid  the  quicksands  of  doubt.  There  is  a  freshness,  a 
jiower,  and  a  felt  sincerity,  in  the  way  in  which  they  deal  with  the 
engrossing  questions  of  our  time,  and,  indeed,  of  all  time,  which 
should  commend  them  to  earnest  spirits  which  feel  that  there  nuist 
be  a  God  and  a  soul,  and  some  way  of  bringing  them  together,  and 
which  yet  have  got  confused  amid  the  negations  of  the  dogmatic 
scepticism  of  our  day.  I  had  the  pleasure  of  meeting  Mr.  Cook  four 
years  ago,  when  he  was  visiting  Europe  to  make  himself  acquainted 
with  different  forms  of  thought;  and  I  could  see  in  him  a  power  and 
resolution  which  foretold  the  mark  he  is  now  making  on  publio 
opinion. 


BOSTON  MONDAY  LECTURES. 


Rev.  C.  H.  Spurgeon. 
These  are  very  wonderful  lectures.  We  bless  God  for  raising  up 
such  a  champion  for  his  truth  as  Jaseph  Cook.  Few  could  hunt 
down  Theodore  Parker,  and  all  that  race  of  misbelievers,  a.s  Mr. 
Cook  has  done.  He  has  strong  convictions,  the  courage  of  his  con- 
victions, and  force  to  support  his  courage.  In  reasoning,  tlie  infidel 
party  have  here  met  their  match.  We  know  of  no  other  man  one- 
iialf  so  well  qualified  for  the  peculiar  service  of  exploding  the  pre- 
tensions of  motlern  science  as  this  great  preacher  in  whom  Boston  is 
rejoicing.  Some  men  shrink  from  this  spiritual  wild-boar  hunting; 
but  Mr.  Cook  is  as  happy  in  it  as  he  is  expert.  May  his  arm  be 
strengthened  by  the  Lord  of  hosts! 

London  Quarterly  Review. 
For  searching  philosophical  anaJysis,  for  keen  and  merciless  logic, 
for  dogmatic  assertion  of  eternal  truth  in  the  august  name  of  science 
nuch  as  fills  the  soul  to  its  foundations,  for  widely  diversified  and 
most  apt  illustrations  drawn  from  a  wide  field  of  reatling  and  ol)ser- 
vation,  for  true  poetic  feeling,  for  a  pathos  without  any  mixture  of 
sentimentality,  for  candor,  for  moral  elevation,  and  for  noble  loyalty 
to  those  great  Christian  verities  which  the  author  aftinns  and  vindi- 
cates, wonderful  lectures  stand  forth  alone  amidst  the  contemporary 
literature  of  the  class  to  which  they  belong. 

The  British  Quarterly  Review. 
Mr.  Cook  is  a  man  of  wide  reading,  tenacious  memory,  acute  dis- 
crimination, and  great  jxiwer  of  popular  exposition.  Notliing  det€r8 
him.  He  plunges  in  media.'*  res,  however  aljstruse  the  sjx-culation, 
and  his  vigor  and  fire  carry  all  before  them.  He  has  intuitive  genius 
lor  pricking  wind-bags,  and  for  reducing  over-sanguine  and  exag- 
gerated hyi>otheses  to  their  exact  value.  He  has  called  a  halt  in 
many  an  impetuous  march  of  science,  and  exjKJsed  a  fundamental 
fallacy  in  many  a  triumphant  argument. 

The  London  Spectator. 
Vigorous  and  suggestive;  interesting  from  the  glimpses  they  give 
of  tli(^  present  jjIiu-scs  of  speculation  in  wliat  is  emphatically  the 
most  thoughtful  community  in  the  United  States. 


Professor  Ulrici,  University  of  Halle,  Germany. 
His  object  is  the  foundation  o<  a  new  and  trne  metaphysics,  rest- 
ing on  a  biological  bjisis;  that  is,  the  pr<M)f  of  the  trutli  of  phihv 
soplii<aI  theism,  and  of  the  fundamental  idca-s  of  Christianity. 
Tl»es<'  intentions  he  carries  out  with  n  full,  and  o<-casionally  with  a 
too  full,  ajiplication  of  his  eminent  oratorical  tjihait,  and  with  great 
Kaga<'ify,  and  with  thorough  knowledge  of  the  leading  works  in 
lihysioiogy  for  the  last  thirty  years. 


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